Book Launch: The Legacies of Totalitarianism: A Theoretical Framework
Speaker(s):
Dr. Aviezer Tucker, Davis Center Associate; Prof. Samuel Moyn, The Law School, Harvard University; Dr. Yascha Mourn, Department of Government, Harvard University
The first political theory of post-Communism examines its implications for understanding liberty, rights, transitional justice, property rights, privatization, rule of law, centrally planned public institutions, and the legacies of totalitarian thought in language and discourse. The transition to post-totalitarianism was the spontaneous adjustment of the rights of the late-totalitarian elite to its interest. Post-totalitarian governments faced severe scarcity in the supply of justice. Rough justice punished the perpetrators and compensated their victims. Historical theories of property rights became radical, and consequentialist theories, conservative. Totalitarianism in Europe disintegrated but did not end. The legacies of totalitarianism in higher education met New Public Management, totalitarian central planning under a new label. Totalitarianism divorced language from reality through the use of dialectics that identified opposites and the use of logical fallacies to argue for ideological conclusions. This book illustrates these legacies in the writings of Habermas, Derrida, and Žižek about democracy, personal responsibility, dissidence, and totalitarianism.
LOCATION:CGIS South Rm. S040, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTART:20151202T210000Z DTEND:20151202T223000Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR