Art and political propaganda in contemporary societies

Abstract

The term 'propaganda' entered common usage during the second quarter of the twentieth century to describe the totalitarian regimes' attempts to achieve comprehensive subordination of knowledge to centralized State policy. In so doing, they expected to win political legitimacy and social control over opposition forces. Indeed, between 1919 and 1936, the fragile democracies or imperial systems of seventeen European states were swept away by revolutionary forces, which established authoritarian governments or dictatorships of every kind. Subsequently opposition parties were either banned or subordinated to the totalitarian regime.