Hannah Arendt, Leninism, & the Disappearance of Authority

Hannah Arendt argues that the socialist regimes that came into existence in this century should not be described as "authoritarian" because they have dispensed with "authority," i.e., moral authority, as a principle of political organization. She claims that these "totalitarian" regimes are the most radical manifestation of the disappearance of authority in the modern age. This article, however, contends that the early socialist movement was concerned about the modern crisis of authority and that the type of authority Arendt describes plays an important part in Lenin's theory. Far from disappearing, the author concludes, authority has in fact reemerged in precisely those regimes that Arendt calls "anti-authoritarian

Authoritarianism · Democracy · Moral authority · Political authority · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy · Law · Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, and Politics