Tzvetan Todorov 
The Inner Enemies of Democracy [EPUB ebook] 

Support

The political history of the twentieth century can be viewed as
the history of democracy’s struggle against its external
enemies: fascism and communism. This struggle ended with the fall
of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet regime. Some
people think that democracy now faces new enemies: Islamic
fundamentalism, religious extremism and international
terrorism and that this is the struggle that will define our
times. Todorov disagrees: the biggest threat to democracy today is
democracy itself. Its enemies are within: what the ancient Greeks
called ‘hubris’.
Todorov argues that certain democratic values have been
distorted and pushed to an extreme that serves the interests of
dominant states and powerful individuals. In the name of
‘democracy’ and ‘human rights’, the United
States and some European countries have embarked on a crusade to
enlighten some foreign populations through the use of force. Yet
this mission to ‘help’ others has led to Abu Ghraib and
Guantanamo, to large-scale destruction and loss of life and to a
moral crisis of growing proportions. The defence of freedom, if
unlimited, can lead to the tyranny of individuals.
Drawing on recent history as well as his own experience of
growing up in a totalitarian regime, Todorov returns to examples
borrowed from the Western canon: from a dispute between Augustine
and Pelagius to the fierce debates among Enlightenment
thinkers to explore the origin of these perversions of
democracy. He argues compellingly that the real democratic ideal is
to be found in the delicate, ever-changing balance between
competing principles, popular sovereignty, freedom and progress.
When one of these elements breaks free and turns into an
over-riding principle, it becomes dangerous: populism,
ultra-liberalism and messianism, the inner enemies of
democracy.

€14.99
méthodes de payement

Table des matières

1 Democracy and its Discontents 1
The paradoxes of freedom 1
External and internal enemies 4
Democracy threatened by its own hubris 7
2 An Ancient Controversy 12
The main characters 12
Pelagius: will and perfection 14
Augustine: the unconscious and original sin 19
The outcome of the debate 22
3 Political Messianism 29
The revolutionary moment 29
The first wave: revolutionary and colonial wars 33
The second wave: the Communist project 37
The third wave: imposing democracy by bombs 45
The Iraq war 48
The internal damage: torture 50
The war in Afghanistan 53
The temptations of pride and power 57
The war in Libya: the decision 59
The war in Libya: the implementation 62
Idealists and realists 67
Politics in the face of morality and justice 71
4 The Tyranny of Individuals 78
Protecting individuals 78
Explaining human behaviour 81
Communism and neoliberalism 87
The fundamentalist temptation 91
Neoliberalism’s blind spots 97
Freedom and attachment 101
5 The Effects of Neoliberalism 104
Blame it on science? 104
The law retreats 109
Loss of meaning 113
Management techniques 116
The power of the media 125
Freedom of public speech 128
The limits of freedom 134
6 Populism and Xenophobia 139
The rise of populism 139
Populist discourse 142
National identity 147
Down with multiculturalism: the German case 150
Britain and France 153
The debate about headscarves 156
One debate can hide another 162
Relations with foreigners 166
Living together better 168
7 The Future of Democracy 173
Democracy, dream and reality 173
The enemy within us 179
Towards renewal? 184
Notes 189
Index 197

A propos de l’auteur

Tzvetan Todorov is Director of Research at the CNRS in Paris.

Achetez cet ebook et obtenez-en 1 de plus GRATUITEMENT !
Langue Anglais ● Format EPUB ● Pages 200 ● ISBN 9780745685786 ● Taille du fichier 0.3 MB ● Maison d’édition John Wiley & Sons ● Publié 2015 ● Édition 1 ● Téléchargeable 24 mois ● Devise EUR ● ID 4313205 ● Protection contre la copie Adobe DRM
Nécessite un lecteur de livre électronique compatible DRM

Plus d’ebooks du même auteur(s) / Éditeur

3 624 Ebooks dans cette catégorie