The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy

Towards a New Taxonomy of Democracy

“…However, one ought to see that -provided one accepts the principal tenets of Marxism-Leninism -theirs is a legitimate form of democratic rule. Some liberal thinkers, like Kuehnelt-Leddhin (1943) and J. T. Talmon (1961), have recognized orthodox Marxist-Leninism as democratic. Talmon did so by placing Marxism, as a whole, within a tradition of democracy which he juxtaposed with that of liberal democracy.…”

Fuller, Dworkin, Scientism, and Liberty: The Dichotomy between Continental and Common Law Traditions and Their Consequences

“…Rousseau believed that man must be forced (by the state) to regard himself not as a unique individual responsible only for himself, but as a being who functions in harmony with society (Talmon [1952(Talmon [ ] 2021. Ideally, individuals join together through a tacit social contract, submitting themselves to the authority of the general will in a society of equals (Rousseau 1762).…”

“…He argued that a government's duties included protecting its people, preventing the extreme inequality of fortunes by shielding citizens from becoming poor, keeping plenty within the reach of individuals, and remaining vigilant in restoring or maintaining patriotism and good morals (Rousseau 1755, p. 18). The existing laws, as Rousseau saw them, were an instrument the rich used to exploit the poor (Talmon [1952] 2021, p. 51). Rousseau's sovereign was the externalized general will; to become a reality, it must be willed by the people and if the people do not will it, then they must be made to do so.…”

“…At first, a constitutional monarchy was created with law-making power transferred from the king to the legislative body with the King having a constitutional veto. However, the poorest were still disenfranchised in the bourgeois effort to create a balance between a new society and stability, and so finding that the Revolutionary purpose had not been fulfilled, the sans-culottes expelled the Girondists, leading to the Jacobin take-over and the reign of terror (Talmon [1952(Talmon [ ] 2021. The theory that drove Jacobinism was that the Revolution opened the way to a natural rational and final order of things; Robespierre was convinced that the people's will, if allowed complete expression, would prove identical with the true general will, a true, absolute, and universal morality.…”

Time-Space Utopian Model as a Critical Method of Sociology: A Book Review of <i>Utopia Method Vision</i>

“…Until now, a utopia refers to an imaginary better society in the future but numerous scholars misrepresent that utopia is a static blueprint. This misunderstanding accompanies more misinterpretations that utopia is "perfection pursing" (Sargisson, 2007: p. 27), radical and totalitarian (Talmon, 1961;Schapiro, 1972;Popper, 2013). In contrast, other utopia scholars refute their misunderstanding by proposing the nature of utopia as "temporal" (Wegner, 2007: p. 125), "unstable, open" (Žižek, 1989: p. 135), "dynamic" (Moylan, 1986).…”