Politics of the Lesser Evil

by Pelinka,Anton

• ISBN13: 9781560003670
• ISBN10: 1560003677
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-04-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Table of Contents

Foreword	9	(2)
1. On Leadership	11	(4)
2. Jaruzelski I: On the Gravity of one -- of any -- Political Decision Martial law -- The end of dual rule -- The parameters -- Purgatory instead of hell -- A particular type of dictatorship -- Jaruzelski as leader	15	(16)
3. On the Illusion of Democratic Leadership The fantasy of democracy -- Heroes and (or) managers -- Politics and policies -- Leadership as an exception to the rule	31	(10)
4. An Impossible Encounter -- The First "But the art of policy is to create a calculation of the risks and rewards that affect the adversary's calculations."	41	(10)
5. On the Tendency to Ban Machiavelli to Hell The conversation in hell -- Machiavelli, the subversive man of reason -- No special moral for politics -- Politicians as scapegoats	51	(8)
6. On the Limits of Idealism Democracy and fundamentalism -- Stalin as a realist -- Hitler as an idealist -- American idealism -- Idealism a la Lyndon Johnson -- Kennedy: Idealism as public relations	59	(10)
7. Charisma	69	(2)
8. On the Attempts to Tame a Myth Is personality really everything? -- Charisma as product -- The erosion of all ethics -- leadership as a (necessary?) illusion -- Vietnam	71	(10)
9. On the Skepticism Toward Too Much Democracy Constitution against tyranny -- The Fear of the majority -- Lincoln's contradictions -- Babeuf's Impatience -- Democracy from above?	81	(8)
10. On the Unavoidability of Lying The Galilei strategy -- Joan of Arc or a politician? -- The art of deception -- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde -- Dr. Strangelove	89	(10)
11. On the Misery of Collaboration The tragedy of the Jewish councils -- Collaboration as a lesser evil -- Philippe Petain -- The collaboration of Azdak and of Schwejk -- Collaboration is not always collaboration -- Collaboration as an attempt at political action	99	(14)
12. On the Presumption of Objectivity Dirty hands -- The script of world history -- The longing for categories -- All orthodoxies are alike	113	(8)
13. On the Ambiguity of Difference The stubbornness of Karl Kraus -- Partial fascism as a lesser evil -- Between devil and Beelzebub -- Churchill: Political capability through differentiation -- Churchill: More than Realpolitik -- Not every appeasement is alike	121	(10)
14. On the Amorality of Foreign Policy Wilson: Principles without strategy -- Roosevelt: Principles and strategy -- Johnson: No principles and no strategy -- Nixon: Strategy without principles	131	(10)
15. On the Logic of Leninism Just is the opposite of just -- Professional revolutionaries and leadership -- Lenin and Stalin as empiricists -- Absolute politics becomes non-politics	141	(8)
16. On the True Nature of Personal Leadership Leadership as mass murder -- Excessive leadership -- Distancing as style -- The freedom from having to learn -- The question of succession -- To chain or unchain leadership?	149	(12)
17. On the Necessity of Limiting Evil The category of evil -- The function of utopia -- The "lesser evil" as justification -- Franz Jagerstatter	161	(10)
18. On the Longing for William Tells and Robin Hoods Italy, Japan, and Switzerland as exceptions -- The invention of heroes -- Leadership as spectacle -- Real functions of monarchies	171	(8)
19. On the Necessity of Becoming a Parvenu The identities forced on Rosa Luxemburg -- Pariah against one's will, parvenu as a necessity -- The function of Zionism -- "Black" and "white" -- Benjamin Disraeli	179	(10)
20. An Impossible Encounter -- The Second "What is the object of our thought? Experience! Nothing else!"	189	(10)
21. On the Democratic Dissolution of Politics in General Inner- or other-directed leadership -- Public versus private -- Politics as knowledge of climate -- Autopoiesis: No one rules -- The fiction of the "people"	199	(10)
22. On the Transformation of the People into the Marketplace The people or "one people" -- McNamara's management -- The market as anti-utopia -- Fulbright's logical contradictions -- "People" means exclusion -- The stubbornness of the woodworms	209	(10)
23. The Cockpit	219	(2)
24. On the Possibility of Intellectual and Moral Leadership Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. -- The "guilty conscience" -- The refusal to take office as a prerequisite of leadership -- The impatience of the Bolsheviks -- Angelo Guiseppe Roncalli	221	(10)
25. Jaruzelski II: On the Arbitrary Nature of Historical Perception The viewpoint of the opposition -- The Soviet viewpoint -- "It is time" -- The Bishops -- A new type of transformation -- Katyn -- The Commissar's dilemma -- Hero or traitor?	231	(16)
26. Bibliography	247	(8)
Index of Persons	255