Autorytaryzm - dociekanie istoty pojęcia

<p>Authoritarianism - searching the essence of the concept</p><p>The article presents main theoretical approaches to the concepts of totalitarianism and authoritarianism, simultaneously confronting them with the assumptions and essence of democracy. The comparative method was used in the text allowed to show the most significant differences between authoritarianism, totalitarianism and democracy. Highlighting the main differences between authoritarianism and total­itarianism is one of the results of the analysis. Absence of a homogenous ideology, lack of mobilization of society, acceptation the existence of the opposition, the possibility of multi-state leadership, tolerant or affirmative attitude towards the Roman Catholic Church - are significant in the case of authoritarianisms. For every conceptual category typology of the multiple and etymological significance is presented. The article shows the concepts for the definition of authoritarianism and totalitarianism in terms of such theorists like Hannah Arendt, Zbigniew Brzeziński, Juan Linz, Rob­ert A. Dahl.