FORMAT OF CHARISMATIC POLITICAL LEADERSHIP IN THE CONTEXT OF AUTHORITARIAN AND TOTALITARIAN SOCIETIES

Abstract

The article applies Erich Fromm’s methodological approach to the analysis of necrophilic and biophilic orientations of personality to conduct a comprehensive study of the constructive and destructive potential of charismatic political leadership amid contemporary socio-political transformations. The focus is on authoritarian and totalitarian types of charismatic leaders, who,on the one hand, shape social communities and societies modeled on their own psychological, value-based, and worldview structures, and on the other hand, are influenced by corresponding social environments, mass expectations, collective fears, cultural- psychological norms, as well as historical traditions and social practices. It is argued that the charisma of a political leader is not reducible solely to a set of individual psychological traits or personal qualities, but emerges as a complex socio-political and symbolic phenomenon, formed through interaction with the community that supports the leader and functions as a symbolic extension of their personality, providing social legitimacy and influence across different levels of societal life. The study demonstrates that within authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, a charismatic political leader realizes their existential appeal through the establishment of a dominant ideology, which serves as a quasi-philosophy of social life, a tool for mass mobilization, and a mechanism for legitimizing political power. Simultaneously, a political regime is established that regulates the leader’s interaction with the community and society, determines the directions of their development, defines the limits of social activity, and establishes mechanisms for reproducing authority and stabilizing political order under conditions of ideological unification, control, and influence over mass consciousness.