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Article: Dictatorship before and after totalitarianism.
- Article from:
- Social Research
- Article date:
- June 22, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 New School for Social Research. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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LET US reopen that remarkable book, The Origins of Totalitarianism. After all the commentaries and Arendt's subsequent works, can we still read it with a fresh eye? As we try, can we get away from the concerns of a dead Sovietology and a very much alive Holocaust cottage industry? Can we, as she always tried, refocus on the present and its politics?
The angle of vision I selected is that of modern dictatorship. I do not know if we are destined to relive totalitarian nightmares. I do know that the challenge and problem of dictatorship will stay with us as long as we organize modern societies through sovereign or quasi-sovereign states, as long as we legitimate ...