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Origins of Totalitarian Democracy, by J. L. Talmon
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Book by Talmon Jl
- Sales Rank: #2159027 in Books
- Brand: Brand: W W Norton Co (Sd)
- Published on: 1970-01
- Ingredients: Example Ingredients
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- Used Book in Good Condition
Most helpful customer reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful.
Democracy Is In the Eye of the Beholder
By W. R. Daughtridge
I first learned of this book when it was mentioned in TIME magazine's article about the French Revolution published at the time of the 200th celebration in July 1989. The words "Totalitarian" and "Democracy" in juxtaposition caught my attention. To a person brought up in the tradition of liberal Western democracy, these words look quite odd together. In the years since I first read Professor Talmon's book, I have used its ideas annually in the World History classes I teach to challenge the students' understanding of the term "Democracy." Just as the People's Republic of China defines Human Rights differently than the West today, so to Robespierre and his fellow members of the Committee of Public Safety who proclaimed "The Reign of Terror" as government policy against their own citizens understood "Democracy" very differently than "we" do. Professor Talmon demonstrates the intellectual origins of Fascism and Stalinism, both of which considered themselves to be forms of "Democracy", as arising during the French Revolution. A short little book of profound significance.
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
Two Schools of Democratic Thought
By Gilbert De Bruycker
The liberal type of democracy and the totalitarian type of democracy have existed side by side ever since the eighteenth century.
The essential difference between the two schools of democratic thought is in their different attitudes to politics.
The liberal approach regards political systems as pragmatic contrivances of human ingenuity and spontaneity. It also recognizes a variety of levels of personal and collective endeavour, which are altogether outside the sphere of politics.
The totalitarian democratic school, on the other hand, postulates a preordained, harmonious and perfect scheme of things, to which men are irresistibly driven, and at which they are bound to arrive It widens the scope of politics to embrace the whole of human existence. It treats all human thought and action as having social significance, and therefore as falling within the orbit of political action.
Both schools affirm the supreme value of liberty. But whereas one finds the essence of freedom in spontaneity and the absence of coercion, the other believes it to be realized only in the pursuit and attainment of a collective purpose.
The final aims of liberal democracy are conceived in rather negative terms, and the use of force for their realization is considered as an evil. Liberal democrats believe that in the absence of coercion men and society may one day reach through a process of trial and error a state of ideal harmony.
In the case of totalitarian democracy, this state is precisely defined, and aims at the maximum of social justice and security. The purpose it proclaims is thought to be immanent in man's reason and will; it proclaims the essential goodness and perfectibility of human nature. The idea of man as an abstraction, independent of the historic groups to which he belongs was the result of the decline of the traditional order in Europe: hierarchical feudalism disintegrated and the older conception of society based on status came to be replaced by the idea of the abstract, individual man. Because of this essentially individualist, atomistic and rationalist trend, totalitarian democracy is always inclined to assume the character of a universal creed, for reason is a unifying force, presupposing mankind to be the sum total of individual reasoning beings. Force is used only in order to quicken the pace of man's progress to perfection and social harmony.
From the difficulty of reconciling freedom with the idea of an absolute purpose spring all the particular problems and antinomies of totalitarian democracy. This difficulty can only be resolved by thinking not in terms of men as they are, but as they were meant to be, and would be, given the proper conditions. In so far as they are at variance with the absolute ideal they can be coerced or intimidated into conforming, without any real violation of the democratic principle being involved. In the proper conditions, it is held, the conflict between spontaneity and duty will disappear, because all have learned to act in harmony, and with it the need for coercion.
Much of the totalitarian democratic attitude was contained in the original and general eighteenth century pattern of thought. The eighteenth century never distinguished clearly between the sphere of personal self-expression and that of social action. The privacy of creative experience and feeling, which is the salt of freedom, was in due course to be swamped by the pressure of the permanency assembled people, vibrating with one collective emotion.
The most important change that occurred in the eighteenth century was the peculiar state of mind which achieved dominance in the second part of the century. Men were gripped by the idea that the conditions, a product of faith, time and custom, in which they and their forefathers had been living, were unnatural and had all to be replaced by deliberately planned uniform patterns, which would be natural and rational.
This was the result of the decline of the traditional order in Europe: religion lost its intellectual as well as its emotional hold; hierarchical feudalism disintegrated under the impact of social and economic factors; and the older conception of society based on status came to be replaced by the idea of the abstract, individual man.
The rationalist idea substituted social utility for tradition as the main criterion of social institutions and values. It thus postulated a single valid system, which would come into existence when everything not accounted for by reason and utility had been removed. The State remained the sole source and sanction of morality. Politics were considered indistinguishable from ethics. The decline of the idea of status consequent on the rise o f individualism spelt the doom of privilege, but also contained totalitarian potentialities.
In the past it was possible for the State to regard many things as matters for God and the Church alone. The new State could recognize no such limitations. Formerly, men lived in groups. A man had to belong to some group, and could belong to several at the same time. Now there was to be only one framework for all activity: the nation.
The fact that eighteenth-century thinkers were ardent prophets of liberty and the rights of man is so much taken for granted that it scarcely needs to be mentioned. But what must be emphasized is the intense preoccupation of the eighteenth century with the idea of virtue, which was nothing if not conformity to the hoped-for pattern of social harmony. Virtuous principles of equality and justice, which Robespierre spelled out in a declaration that formed the basis of the Constitution of 1793, such as Article 1. The object of every political association is to safeguard the natural and imprescriptible rights of men. Article 3. [R]ights belong equally to all men, whatever their physical and moral differences. Article 4. Freedom is the right of every man to exercise all his faculties at will. Its rule is justice, its limits are the rights of others, its source is nature, its guarantee is the law. Article 18. Any law which violates the imprescriptible rights of man is essentially unjust and tyrannical.
They refused to envisage the conflict between liberty and virtue as inevitable. On the contrary, the inevitable equation of liberty with virtue and reason was the most cherished article of their faith. Against those who refused to be free and virtuous the use of coercion was justified.
It was however extremely difficult to theorize about a rational harmonious social order, with anti-social impulses checked, and man's desire for happiness satisfied, while leaving the field of economic endeavour to be dominated by established facts and interests, man's acquisitive spirit and chance.
Before the eighteenth century had come to an end, the inner logic of this political Messianism converted the secular religion of the eighteenth century from a mainly ethical into a social and economic doctrine, based on ethical premises: a complete self-contained philosophy of the world and of human development. Although the State reserves the absolute right to interfere in any way it chooses in economic activity because all of society's goods and services are regarded as social property, the State may permit businesses to continue operating under private ownership, as long as it serves the "common good".
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
The Optimistic Jew
By Tsvi Bisk
This elegantly written work contrasts liberal democracy (individual in the center) with totalitarian democracy (state in the center). It charts the development of totalitarian democracy in Europe since the 18th century. I prefer the term Majoritarian democracy because it is more inclusive and therefore more useful. Stalinism, Maoism and Fascism are the totalitarian version of majoritarianism. Western European democracies have Majoritarian tendencies, while the English speaking world - especially the US - is dominated by the constitutional imperative.
Understanding this enabled me to understand another dissonance I had with Israeli society. In America, my birthplace, democracy means that government engages in activities that cannot be handled efficiently by civil society. In Israel, following the continental tradition, democracy meant government involved in all aspects of social life. Today, Israel, like Europe, has come closer to the American view of individual vs. society but its Majoritarian tendencies are still evident. I discuss this in great detail in my own book "The Optimistic Jew: a Positive Vision for the Jewish People in the 21st Century".Talmon's book is a wonderful companion piece to Fareed Zakaria's book "The Future of Freedom", although its style is heavily academic.
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