Mr. Lukashenko, a former manager of a state farm, is not at all choosy about his totalitarian models.

By opting decisively for the totalitarian model he destroyed the lingering legitimacy of the system.

Such a view stood in opposition to the dominant totalitarian model of the day, which tended to depict the Soviet Union as monolithic and immutable without the exertion of external force.

The country had not governed itself in 300 years, so there was no body of law, no democratic tradition, and a military organized on the totalitarian model with corresponding values.

However, proponents of the totalitarian model claimed that the failure of the system to survive showed not only its inability to adapt but the mere formality of supposed popular participation.

But in truth these two totalitarian models are actually very similar.

In point of fact, Mr Oostlander, Kemalism was by no means a totalitarian system, and did not follow totalitarian models.

China's influence on African countries is a dangerous example of a totalitarian model, and a corrupt market model, devoid of any respect for individuals or human rights, or any respect for the environment.

Tucker also criticized the totalitarian model for downplaying the conflicts and cleavages, inefficiencies and incompatibilities, and "departmentalism" and "localism" in purportedly "monolithic" and "monopolistic" regimes.

These totalitarian, neo-Stalinist models are relatively stable.