O IMPERIALISMO E O COLONIALISMO NAS ORIGENS DO TOTALITARISMO

Abstract

In order to diagnose the origins of totalitarianism, in her book Origins of totalitarianism – originally published in 1951 –, in the section on imperialism, Hannah Arendt reflects how the political emancipation of the bourgeoisie was established through the political dynamics between settler colonies, imperial centers and native groups. From the study of European colonial imperialism, he explains how the disintegration of the national states that contained the necessary devices for the subsequent emergence of totalitarian movements and governments took place. This puts us in front of a new form of government, which, while challenging positive laws, does not act without the guidance of a law, nor is it arbitrary, as it claims to follow the laws of nature, or of history; it appeals to the authority to which positive laws receive their final legitimacy.