The concept is also described as "inverted totalitarianism" by Sheldon Wolin. Wolin argues that classic totalitarianism has the following characteristic traits:

• dichotomy between "elite" and "mass" where the elite are made to be natural leaders and the "mass" are indistinguishable from each other and tend to follow,
• totalitarianism is characterized by a one-party system,
• a belief system that is coherent and palatable to a large audience and represents a world view, sometimes even as a substitute to religion (hegemony),
• control of mass-communications, related to propaganda, it is the strive to make party dogma the most prominent,
• the use of terror; the incentive to instill a state of fear, sufficient yet not overwhelming enough, to be able to suppress dissent,
• expansionist, a certain dynamism that takes the state outwards (ie: treaty violations, disregard for international treaties, etc.),
• the subordination of domestic policy to foreign policy; domestic policy has a secondary importance and usually just there in order to quell dissent,
• the military is exalted; heroism, manliness, willingness to die or sacrifice for the state are considered to be exalted virtues,

Wolin claims that a regime can formally pretend to be the opposite of totalitarianism while still being a totalitarian state. Starting from the previous definitions, the "inversion" in Wolin's definition of "inverted totalitarianism" consists in:

• elections, exemplified with elections under the Nazi regime, being staged, controlled or manipulated by the state given very few choices or non-existent; elections became "plebiscites" with the purpose of showing declaratively that the regime was popular,
• the media becoming more centralized or pipelines such that opposing views have less of a chance to make it through thereby achieving the effect of state-controlled or power-centric propaganda,
• the only purpose of an "inverted totalitarianism" state is to wage war:
  • Wolin exemplified with the "war on terror" and the events of 9/11, where the president hinted that the "war on terror" could last for multiple decades, thereby achieving the effect of being "eternal" or an "eternal war",
  • Wolin notes that the "war on terror" is a war against an ever-elusive enemy given that "terror" is an abstract concept such that it is possible for the war to be never-ending,
  • the "war on terror" then gets subsumed by the other layers of society such that "war" becomes ingrained in the culture itself and changes culture accordingly,
  • the ability of a state to wage war without bothering the population (exemplified by Wolin though the Vietnam war),
• "inverted totalitarianism" is left in free-fall without taking measures, an economy that produces fear by obsoleting trades such that society does not really want to cure matters such as unemployment,
• the manipulation of voting polls in order to receive a desired answer especially when the polls are directed on an anemic or apathetic voter base,
  • voting polls originally created with a marketing motivation invented in Michigan, such that the voter and consumer became interchangeable items,
  • a pseudo-democracy, a democracy whose opinion is solicited, a democracy that is wanted by the leadership, a democracy that existed within the polls with the purpose of appeasing dissent,
• the system was geared towards the military and war instead of democracy, a military of minorities, a class army composed of cultural or racial minorities; this leads to democracy being reduced at the favor of the military,
• antithesis between empire and democracy leading to oxymorons such as a superpower democracy or imperial democracy,
• from Abraham Lincoln, "no one man should have the power to take a nation into war", the weakening of the legislative branch that leads to such events being made possible; the elites being beholden to the sponsors rather their constituents,
• the transformation of the two-party system since Regan into a right-wing (republican) and center (liberal) party where both parties follow conservative ideologies
  • the meld of political parties into a singular effective party (exemplifies with Bill Clinton being a centrist without opposition),
  • the politicization of courts (independent court becomes a myth),
  • similar to David Harvey's claim that the US has no left-leaning party,
• media concentration (the suppression of alternatives) leading to the homogenization of opinion; undermining intellectual independence where key-positions are occupied by well-groomed candidates and think-tanks,
• typical erosion of civil liberties,
• totalitarian regimes mobilize populations, regiment them or control them in an unanimous fashion whereas inverted-totalitarianism seeks to demobilize them