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흔히 독재자라는 단어로 비슷한 종류의 국가지도자들을 대략 분류하지만, 한나 아렌트가 보기에 일반 독재자/폭군과 전체주의자(the Leader)의 차이는 분명한 듯. 나쁘기야 둘 다 말할 필요는 없겠지만...
A tyrant would never identify himself with his subordinates, let alone with every one of their acts; he might use them as scapegoats and gladly have them criticized in order to save himself from the wrath of the people, but he would always maintain an absolute distance from all his subordinates and all his subjects. The Leader, on the contrary, cannot tolerate criticism of his subordinates, since they act always in his name; if he wants to correct his own errors, he must liquidate those who carried them out; if he wants to blame his mistakes on others, he must kill them. For within this organizational framework a mistake can only be a fraud: the imposition of the Leader by an imposter.
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism 375-76.