Beyond “The Power of the Powerless”: the Political Thought and Polemics of the Czechoslovak Opposition, 1977–1980

Abstract

The article focuses on the political thought of the Czechoslovak opposition during the brief period from the creation of Charter 77 to 1980. It analyzes the themes of Václav Havel’s essay “The Power of the Powerless” within the context of the political thought of Czechoslovak dissidents. In doing so, it reveals various positions that were highly critical of Havel’s formulation of dissent. It is argued that the intellectual discourse of the opposition can be structured according to contentious themes such as the relationship to the impersonal institutions of modern society, the nature of politics and party politics in particular, the meaning and importance of “living in truth,” the interpretation of “small-scale work,” and the nature of responsibility (moral versus political). This article reveals mutually incompatible intellectual positions which, although unrealized in practice, are not intellectually inferior to canonical texts like Havel’s.