The Power Of The Powerless Citizens Against The State In Central Eastern Europe

Václav Havel’s remarkable and rousing essay on the tyranny of apathy, with a new introduction by Timothy Snyder Cowed by life under Communist Party rule, a greengrocer hangs a placard in their shop window: Workers of the world, unite! Is it a sign of the grocer’s unerring ideology? Or a symbol of the lies we perform to protect ourselves? Written in 1978, Václav Havel’s meditation on political dissent – the rituals of its suppression, and the sparks that re-ignite it – would prove the guiding manifesto for uniting Solidarity movements across the Soviet Union. A portrait of activism in the face of falsehood and intimidation, The Power of the Powerless remains a rousing call against the allure of apathy. 'Havel’s diagnosis of political pathologies has a special resonance in the age of Trump' Pankaj Mishra

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Editor's preface -- Introduction -- 1 The power of the powerless -- 2 Spiritual values, independent initiatives and politics -- 3 Catholicism and politics -- 4 On the question of Chartism -- 5 The human rights movement and social progress -- 6 Prospects for democracy and socialism in eastern Europe -- 7 Chartism and 'real socialism' -- 8 Who really is isolated? -- 9 The alternative community as revolutionary avant-garde -- 10 Thoughts inside a tightly-corked bottle -- 11 On not living in hatred -- Appendix Charter 77 Declaration

Books of great political insight and novelty always outlive their time of birth and this reissued work, initially published in 1985, is no exception. Written shortly after the formation of Charter 7, the essays in this collection are among the most original and compelling pieces of political writing to have emerged from central and Eastern Europe during the whole of the post-war period.

Books of great political insight and novelty always outlive their time of birth and this reissued work, initially published in 1985, is no exception. Written shortly after the formation of Charter 77, the essays in this collection are among the most original and compelling pieces of political writing to have emerged from central and Eastern Europe during the whole of the post-war period. Václav Havel’s essay provides the title for the book. It was read by all the contributors who in turn responded to the many questions which Havel raises about the potential power of the powerless. The essays explain the anti-democratic features and limits of Soviet-type totalitarian systems of power. They discuss such concepts as ideology, democracy, civil liberty, law and the state from a perspective which is radically different from that of people living in liberal western democracies. The authors also discuss the prospects for democratic change under totalitarian conditions. Steven Lukes’ introduction provides an invaluable political and historical context for these writings. The authors represent a very broad spectrum of democratic opinion, including liberal, conservative and socialist.

This book introduces radically alternative models of civil society that have been developed outside the liberal democratic frame of reference, models which suggest that civil society does offer new and non-statist democratic possibilities. Drawing on a wide range of civil society theory-practice from Eastern Europe and Latin America (including the Zapatistas in Mexico), and from visions of global civil society too, this book is uniquely positioned to consider the questions posed by these alternative voices for democratic theory and practice. * Are there alternatives to the liberal democratic vision of civil society? * Is a democracy located in civil society rather than the state either possible or desirable? * How and why has the concept of civil society come to be used so widely today? * Can global civil society further the struggle for democracy initiated by national civil societies?

A Resurrection of the Republican Ideal offers a unique perspective on governmental reform. Employing traditional philosophies and principles that have largely been forgotten, Goodwin proposes methodologies that are designed to increase citizen participation in this country by redirecting power and funding away from a governmental center and toward localities. Contents: PRECEDENT AND POSSIBILITY; Republican Questions Set the Stage; Historical Perspectives; Government and the Individual; The Alternate Contract Spectre; Extreme Dangers; PHILOSOPHIES FOR IMPROVEMENT; Montesquieu's Theory of Small Republics; Vaclav Havel's Politics of Conscience; Inspiration from the Iroquois Confederacy; AN AMBIANCE FOR GOVERNING; Defining the Solution; Where the Grass Roots Begin; Localism in Action; A Small Republic Example; Grappling with the Issues; Selecting Representatives; WIDENING THE SCOPE; Hemispheric Implications; Pipe Dream or Possibility.