Parallel Polis is a socio-political concept created by

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

political thinker and dissident Vaclav Benda in connection with the informal civic initiative,

Charter 77 Charter 77 (''Charta 77'' in Czech and Slovak) was an informal civic initiative in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members and architects were Jiří Něm ...

. Benda and other philosophers sought to build a theoretical framework for social events in dissident circles.

Social structure

The

alternative culture Alternative culture is a type of culture that exists outside or on the fringes of mainstream or popular culture, usually under the domain of one or more subcultures. These subcultures may have little or nothing in common besides their relative ...

, or underground, was described in Parallel Polis in 1978 for the first time. A political scientist, Benda noticed the emergence of a new social structure in artistic and intellectual circles as a tool to escape the

totalitarian Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regul ...

communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...

and detected the following pillars of the new "field": * Constant monitoring and verification of

civic rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...

and freedoms, which the state tends to restrict. Parallel Polis consists of people who actively advocate for (and protect) their rights. * "Alternative" (underground) culture is independent, and consists of art which is developed without the permission—or support—of public authorities. * Parallel education and science, representing the right to free education and the development of scientific research (residential seminars and educational societies and academies) * A parallel information system as an expression of the right to the free dissemination of information (such as ''

samizdat Samizdat (russian: самиздат, lit=self-publishing, links=no) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the document ...

'' publishing and unofficial magazines and collections) * Parallel economy: "Political power considers this area as a critical resource for arbitrary control of citizens and strictly regulates it at the same time". The economy of dissent was based on reciprocity and trust in the individual. It was the germ of a principle and the search for resources which are not dependent on the control of monetary tools. * Creation of parallel political structures and the promotion of their development. The alternative political structures must be incubated in the Parallel Polis and develop into a form which can replace the ruling authoritarian regime. * Parallel foreign policy must be an instrument of the parallel society for the international stabilization and grounding of the movement and the search for financial and mental resources. These patterns of the parallel structure are not a closed set; on the contrary, they occur on all fronts of the resistance against the authoritarian state. The aim of the Parallel Polis, according to Vaclav Havel,

Ivan Martin Jirous Ivan Martin Jirous (23 September 1944 – 9 November 2011) was a Czech poet and dissident, best known as the artistic director of the Czech psychedelic rock group The Plastic People of the Universe, and later one of the key figures of the Czech ...

, Milan Šimečky and other dissidents who discussed the concept, should be an independent society not oppressed by laws and decisions of representatives of public authorities—a society based on its own values, which are not forced by the central authorities.

Use in cryptoanarchism

The concept has been revived by scholars who met at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

and now work at other academic institutions. They posit that Benda's idea is being practiced on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

, which facilitates parallel institutions. In 2014, a physical space inspired by the idea opened in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

Holešovice Holešovice () is a district in the north of Prague situated on a meander of the River Vltava, which makes up the main part of the district Prague 7 (an insignificant part belongs to Prague 1). In the past it was a heavily industrial suburb; ...

district. Since then, individuals inspired by the idea have started a similar physical space in

Bratislava Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...

, and further physical spaces are expected to open in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. The venue serves as a think tank for individuals interested in ideas of innovation without a central authority. The goal is building parallel structures on a voluntary basis with an effort to remain state-free. The venues also operate as cafes that only accept

cryptocurrency A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. It i ...

payments. The space gained media attention for acts of political activism, such as a boycott of

Electronic record of sales in Czech Republic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

after it was put into effect, or after receiving a statement from the

Czech National Bank The Czech National Bank, ( cs, Česká národní banka, ČNB) is the central bank and financial market supervisor in the Czech Republic, headquartered in Prague. It is and a member of the European System of Central Banks. It was established on ...

prohibiting the use of the word "coin" for a symbolic metal coin connected to a virtual Bitcoin.

References

External links

Paralelni Polis website
Sociological theories

Social structure

Use in cryptoanarchism

See also

References

Further reading

External links