The Legacies of Totalitarianism
A Theoretical Framework

This book provides the first political theory of post-Communist Europe, discussing liberty, rights, transitional justice, property, privatization, and rule of law.

Aviezer Tucker (Author)

9781107121263, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 October 2015

272 pages
23.5 x 15.5 x 2 cm, 0.5 kg

'Tucker's book is an exciting read. It will be of interest to political theorists and to those who work on issues of transitional justice in a range of geographical and historical contexts.' Martin K. Dimitrov, The Review of Politics

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.

Introduction
1. The adjustment of elite rights to interests
2. Post-totalitarian rough justice
3. Rough justice: post-totalitarian retribution
4. Rough and shallow: post-totalitarian rectification
5. The new politics of property rights
6. Old to new totalitarianism: post-totalitarian higher education
7. Short-circuiting reason: the legacies of post-totalitarian thinking
Conclusion. Only dissidents can save us now.

Subject Areas: Political structures: totalitarianism & dictatorship [JPHX], Comparative politics [JPB], Political science & theory [JPA], History of ideas [JFCX], Social & political philosophy [HPS], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]