Lost or Obscured? How V. I. Lenin, Joseph Schumpeter, and Hannah Arendt Misunderstood the Council Movement
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7354986 |
|---|---|
| Authors | John Medearis (0000-0003-3413-7067, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2004 |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 447-476 |
| Publication date | 2004-04-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Polity (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0032-3497 • E-ISSN: 1744-1684 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/polv36n3ms3235386 |
| OpenAlex | W2568281455 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
The period following World War I witnessed the flourishing of the council movement, which attempted to democratize politics, society and the economy in Central and Eastern Europe. The movement deserves theoretical attention as an illustrative experiment in democratic agency-responsive to historical conditions and constraints, and oppositional and transformative in its approach and aims. The movement's impact on thinking about democracy has been significant, but also ironic, because its story has been transmitted to the present by theorists who did not share the councils' ambitions and assumptions. Few recall now that figures as disparate as V. I. Lenin, Joseph Schumpeter, and Hannah Arendt responded in important ways to the movement. Ultimately, the way these theorists conceptualized collective agency caused them to misjudge the significance of the movement for democratic theory. And their resulting mis-portrayals have contributed to some of the limitations of contemporary Anglo-American democratic theory
Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy · Democracy · Flourishing · Movement (music · Peace movement · Period (music · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Transformative learning · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy · Law · Philosophy
| Citations per year | 0.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2012 - 2025 (14) |
| Highly cited | No |