Democracy And Totalitarianism (book)
''Democracy and Totalitarianism'' (1968) is a book by French philosopher and political scientist Raymond Aron. It compares the political systems of the Soviet Union and the democratic countries of the West. Soviet history The basis of the book was a series of lectures Aron gave in 1957 and 1958 at Sorbonne University. It is republished in France regularly and has been translated into many languages, including Russian (1993). Party history Aron divided the history of the Soviet Communist Party into five stages: * Before November 1917: Vladimir Lenin wanted to create a party of professional revolutionaries, with strict discipline. According to Lenin, such a party could organize the successful capture of power and could incite the people to revolt, instead of conducting insignificant talks about socialism in parliament. Elections of deputies on congresses of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Soviet Communist Party were held honestly at first, but Lenin later manipulate ...
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Raymond Aron
Raymond Claude Ferdinand Aron (; 14 March 1905 – 17 October 1983) was a French philosopher, sociologist, political scientist, historian and journalist, one of France's most prominent thinkers of the 20th century. Aron is best known for his 1955 book '' The Opium of the Intellectuals'', the title of which inverts Karl Marx's claim that religion was the opium of the people; he argues that Marxism was the opium of the intellectuals in post-war France. In the book, Aron chastised French intellectuals for what he described as their harsh criticism of capitalism and democracy and their simultaneous defense of Marxist oppression, atrocities and intolerance. Critic Roger Kimball suggests that ''Opium'' is "a seminal book of the twentieth century". Aron is also known for his lifelong friendship, sometimes fractious, with philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. The saying "Better be wrong with Sartre than right with Aron." became popular among French intellectuals. As a voice of moderation in pol ...
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