Vaclav Havel's The Power Of The Powerless

The quote “The object of power is power” is heavily supported by George Orwell’s 1949 novel ‘1984’ and Fritz Lang’s 1927 film ‘Metropolis’ through their intertextual connections and shared perspectives. Both texts were composed around the context of pre and post World War 2 which is clearly evident through their settings, characterisation, themes and ideas. Through Orwell’s and Fritz’s use of dystopic societies, empowerment of women and detrimental dictatorship rule it is blatant that George Orwell’s quote “The object of power is power” is quite strongly supported by the intertextual connections and shared perspectives of Orwell’s ‘1984’ and Lang’s ‘Metropolis’.

In Putin’s Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia?, Karen Dawisha relates Russian President Vladmir Putin’s rise to power. She overarchingly claims that Putin is an authoritarian leader who has obstructed and even reverted Russia’s path of democratization, citing, amongst many factors that enabled his ascension, his “interlocking web of personal connections in which he was the linchpin” (100), money-laundering to tax havens and personal projects, and the complicity of the West. With copious research, journalistic interviews, legal documents, and even sporadic informational diagrams, it is evident why her book is so popular amongst scholars and history enthusiasts. Unfortunately however, in spite of the grand yet oftentimes substantiated claims she generates, a more subtle yet noteworthy assumption is made: that the state is a protector, as Olson proffered. She employs this theoretical underpinning from the beginning, though is not representative of Putin’s actual authoritarian regime.

Power is an eternal desire of all individuals, because of this; speeches that discuss the implications of power endure. Havel implies that the previous regime depersonalised their citizens “Huge, noisy and stinking machine”. The power to depersonalise their citizens was an integral part of the communist regime, this issue has become even more prevalent in today’s society as technology has allowed for the depersonalisation of individuals online. Havel has exposed to future generations that depersonalisation isn’t an issue to be taken lightly; this has led to the appreciation of his speech over

In order to conclude the extent to which the Great Terror strengthened or weakened the USSR the question is essentially whether totalitarianism strengthened or weakened the Soviet Union? Perhaps under the circumstances of the 1930s in the approach to war a dictatorship may have benefited the country in some way through strong leadership, the unifying effect of reintroducing Russian nationalism and increased party obedience.

The book one hundred and twenty eight page book entitled On Tyranny by author Timonthy Snyder plublished in New York in 2017 is not Timothy Snyder’s first book in the area of politics. Timothy Snyder also has written books on politics entitled Nationalism, Marxism and Modern Central Europe: A Biography of Kazimierz Kelles-Krauz, A Wall Around the West: State Borders and Immigration and Controls in the United States and Europe just to name of few of his political works. However in this work I will be analysing Timothy Snyder’s work entitled On Tyranny and the various arguments set forth by the book as well as the narration, setting, themes, plot and my opinion of the book.

Under Mikhail Gorbachev the Soviet Union underwent massive social, political and economic reform that drifted away from communist ideology and this ultimately lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union and failure of communism in Eastern Europe. This essay will focus on how the Perestroika reform and Glasnost policy programs as well as other external and internal pressures contributed to the failure of communism under Gorbachev. The aim of the Perestroika and Glasnost reforms was to restructure and strengthen the Soviet political and economic system and provide more freedom and democracy within the Soviet Union while strengthening Communism. However, these changes had achieved exactly what they aimed to prevent when they were first elaborated and led to the failure of communism and collapse of the Soviet Union. While focusing on the policies this essay will also focus on the major increase in nationalism that occurred in the Soviet Republics as a result of the Glasnost. External pressure from the western world was also a factor and the role that the United States and the Ronald Reagan administration played in the downfall of communism under Gorbachev will be examined. The essay will also discuss how the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the 1991 Coup d’état led to the failure of the policies and failure of communism.

“In Hitler's Germany there were many characteristics of a Totalitarian state. The Government ran and censored the media. All forms of communication were liable to interference from above and could, and were, heavily censored. This removes freedom of speech, therefore enabling the government to influence popular opinion via propaganda and false news messages” (“Was”, n.d.).

My written task is based on the book 1984 by George Orwell: “The Theory and practice of Oligarchical Collectivism” written by Emanuel Goldstein is a book introduced in Orwell’s novel. The book addresses the party’s slogans: War is peace, Ignorance is strength and Freedom is slavery. It explains their true inner party meanings to the protagonist Winston and essentially the reader.

“War is peace, Freedom is slavery, Ignorance is strength.” George Orwell’s 1984 depicts a dystopian state which is controlled by a totalitarian government. The government uses propaganda as a cornerstone of exploiting people and remaining in power. Techniques such as doublethink, slogans, newspeak and laws are cunningly used by the regime in order to maintain authority. Every action of an individual is controlled by the state through the use of fear thus restricting an individual from using their own intellect in order to make effective decisions. The propaganda evident in 1984 can be compared to the propaganda found in the film Goodbye Lenin.

However, a regime is no longer democratic the moment it violates at least one of the norms that make elections democratic, hence the name electoral authoritarianism. Furthermore, there are intrinsic powers of representative institutions in driving the dynamic of stability and change in such regimes. Thus, there is motivation for rulers to manipulate them and gain electoral legitimacy without bearing the risks of democratic uncertainty. The manipulative tactics used by authoritarians to repress are assumed to render electoral authoritarian regimes more resilient. The article also assumes the manipulation of representative institutions to create imperfectly informed citizens are identified as more authoritarian than

In recent times, no one can take total power by force alone; you must offer something favorable to the people in order to obtain support. Unfortunately, there are some countries that follow a dictatorship system, which is a form of government that includes social and political power to ensure that the individual’s capability remains strong. Vladimir Putin is a contemporary dictator of Russia. His rebelliousness as a child has led him to his leadership. His cold-heartedness to his rivals and invasion towards countries has led to an opposition towards him. Vladimir Putin’s experience as a street thug led him to his leadership, which easily rose him to power: Not only has he committed crimes against humanity, but he has made groups of people and countries oppose him.

Interestingly, this documentary is based on the lives of five individuals and their experiences with Russia’s transition that came from the collapse of the Soviet Union. Moreover, four of the five people have known each other from childhood and lived in similar circumstances under the authoritarian rule. I will be focusing on how Olga, Andrei, Borya and Lyuba who are ordinary citizens have managed to live under an authoritarian rule. To begin with, USSR was the union of 15 socialist republic that included: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belorussia, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kirgiziya Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia, Russia,Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Without a doubt, USSR adopted a authoritarian regime in which it the socialist had the ultimate ownership in all areas of manufacture, distribution, and trade.

Instead, the regime programmed people with the notion of social order, with traditional attitudes to great power, superiority and history, “Orthodoxy” the primary religion of the state and military. The area where politics and civil society should have been was "purged" decreasing the rights of citizens unknowingly. “If participation were not contained, the Kremlin feared the state would lose control; if the constraints were too tight, citizens would not participate, and the state would again need a cumbersome bureaucracy to get things done” (Richter 41). Political parties, independent television channels, non governmental and public organizations, the system of elections, the courts and law-enforcement bodies as autonomous bodies

Often resulting from the frustration Russia experienced after the fall of the Soviet Union, nostalgia for a USSR past reminds us of the important changes that followed Soviet dissolution, including the elimination in Russia of widespread political and socioeconomic regulation of society. But echoes of the Soviet past, including crackdowns on dissent, now seem more pronounced (White, 2010). As post-Soviet Russia, through time and western

ABSTRACT: Totalitarian political systems in the socialist countries of Eastern Europe destroyed and repressed the civil society that used to exist in them. The authoritarian and totalitarian ethos was formed under a powerful influence of ideologies of the communist parties and politocracy in these countries so that the political ethos of politicians dominated the political ethos of the citizen. The breakdown of the real socialism and its unsuccessful attempts to complete accelerated liberal modernization of these societies caused turbulence of social values in addition to the general moral chaos. The moral crisis has deepened; anomie increased as well as the society’s inclination to commit