Ideologies of Kaiserreich

In preparation for my next Kaiserreich play through, I thought it might be useful to explain some of the political ideologies in Kaiserreich so when these terms pop up you'll know what they mean. To be clear, I won't explain what Conservatives, Liberals, or Social Democrats are, because I assume you already know what they mean. I'm going to focus on explaining terms that are either obscure or unknown outside of Kaiserrech. So. here it goes:

TOTALISM: Totalism, short for "Totalitarian Socialism" is essentially exactly what it says on the tin. Totalists believe that an all powerful government with a cult of personality around the glorious leader is necessary to protect the worker's revolution from the bourgeoisie scum. They oppose traditional religion, considering it a tool of capitalism, and tend to embrace either atheism, or in some cases paganism. Many of them are also hardcore nationalists, and they REALLY want to spread the revolution to other countries by force. The closest example in real life would be Stalin's Soviet Union, or maybe modern North Korea. Basically, they are Orwell's nightmare. One running gag in Kaiserreich is that many of the Totalists are people who in real life started out as socialists but eventually shifted to fascism, most notably Oswald Mosley in Britain, Marcel Deat in France, (google them) and Benito Mussolini in Italy.

SYNDICALISM: Syndicalism is kind of similar to Leon Trotsky's vision, in that it is made up of Trade Unions who run the economy and elect members to represent them in a Trade Union Congress, which serves as the country's government. While they're not quite as extreme as the Totalists, in that there's plenty of room for debate within the party elite, they're still hardly democratic either: non-socialist parties are banned, the media is state controlled propaganda, and religion, while tolerated, is strictly controlled and monitored by the state. The best real life examples would be Khruschev's Soviet Union, or modern Venezuela.

RADICAL SOCIALISM: These guys can be seen as the "nice" socialists. They're basically just a democratic state with a somewhat socialist economy, state's rights, free speech, and freedom of religion. Basically, they're what America might be like if Bernie Sanders were president.

AUTHORITARIAN DEMOCRACY: These guys basically believe that in order to protect the nation from it's enemies, it's sometimes necessary to use... "Questionable" methods, like, say, monitoring or arresting suspected extremists. They also tend to value traditional religious values and nationalism at least somewhat. They aren't total dictators though, they still have regular elections, and as long as you're not a radical or something, you'll probably be fine. Similar to America during the McCarthy era, or the George W. Bush administration.

PATERNAL AUTOCRATS: These people are highly conservative and highly authoritarian. All the subjects are treated as wards of the benevolent and paternalistic leader (either an absolute monarch, or some other kind of dictator.) But don't step out of line, the wise leader's patience has it's limits... Franco's Spain or Saudi Arabia would fall under this category.

NATIONAL POPULISM: National Populism is a totalitarian ideology that supports uniting the nation under a strong leader. It combines socialist economic policies and militarism, with ultra nationalist and even racist beliefs Nazi Germany would be a good real life example, as well as Assad's regime in Syria.

So there you have it. Aside from the regular liberals and conservatives, these are the ideologies of Kaiserreich! I hope this clears things up a little.