Abstract

In Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy, Friedrich and Brzezinski present a model of a totalitarian regime. It is the fusion of a revolutionary ideology, an elitist party, and a secret police which sets off the dynamics of totalitarianism, implemented by means of terror. Using the model as a guide, this article evaluates the nature of the regime that has emerged in Nicaragua since the 1979 revolution against the Somoza autocracy. The ideology, party, and police of the Sandinista state fit the model in most respects, but other totalitarian traits are not fully developed. It concludes that the Sandinista regime has not completed the process toward mature totalitarianism.