If the term “statism” designates concentration of power in the state at the
expense of individual liberty, then Nazism in politics was a form of statism.
In principle, it did not represent a new approach to government; it was a
continuation of the political absolutism—the absolute monarchies, the
oligarchies, the theocracies, the random tyrannies—which has characterized
most of human history.
In degree, however, the total state does differ from its predecessors: it
represents statism pressed to its limits, in theory and in practice, devouring
the last remnants of the individual.