Totalitarianism is a system in which government is extremely centralized and all power is held by the government rather than by the people. This power is limitless, controlling everything from the economy and religion to culture and education, and this power extends to controlling the private lives of citizens.
The Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, Germany under Adolf Hitler, and Italy under Benito Mussolini are some of the most notable and well-known examples of totalitarian governments.
A democracy is a political system in which power is supposed to be held by the entire population ("the people"). The people are given the right to vote and choose their own elected officials. Key differences between the two include:
Speech - freedom of speech is essential to democracies, while totalitarian governments often depend on censorship to thrive, often going so far as to forbid speaking negatively of the government.
Media - democracies generally maintain freedom of the press while censorship is again necessary for a totalitarian government to maintain its absolute power.
Leadership - totalitarian governments often revolve around a dictator with near-absolute power, while democracies have either a president, a parliament, or direct democracy in which all members of government have equal rights (Switzerland is an example of this form of democracy).
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