In order to conceptualize totalitarianism, Arendt in the final chapter of The Origins of Totalitarianism applies Montesquieu's categories of political analysis to Nazism and Stalinism. Arendt argues that totalitarianism cannot be identified with any of Montesquieu's types of government. Montesquieu encountered an analogous problem while discussing the English constitution whose nature and guiding principle were unprecedented. However, unlike Montesquieu’s England that represents state as a modern form of political order, totalitarianism accomplished complete break with the tradition. Totalitarianism makes Montesquieu's categories altogether useless – both the nature of government and its principle are of no avail when trying to get to terms with it. Therefore, instead of defining totalitarianism simply as a new form of government, one should conclude that it is not a government at all. Rather, it is a negative mirror image of English constitution, an unheard-of structureless movement aimed at utter destruction of human freedom through terror.
