On Democracy
Avakian has been a critic of democracy, arguing that democracy cannot be viewed as a universal notion of equality, understood as above or separate from class societies. Avakian takes up the position that any democracy that exists with different classes, one class will always be able to exploit another class. In his book, Democracy: Can’t We Do Better Than That?, Avakian has developed polemics against Hannah Arendt and the "theory of totalitarianism" as well as other prominent theoreticians of democracy, including Locke and Rousseau. Specifically speaking to the history of the United States, Avakian has recently published Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy, which attempts to deconstruct the philosophical basis, and consequences, of Jeffersonian democracy.
Read more about this topic: Bob Avakian
Famous quotes containing the word democracy:
“Even under the most perfect Social Democracy we should, without Communism, still be living like hogs, except that each hog would get his fair share of grub.... Whilst we are hogs, let us at least be well-fed, healthy, reciprocally useful hogs, instead of—well, instead of the sort we are at present.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“When people generally are aware of a problem, it can be said to have entered the public consciousness. When people get on their hind legs and holler, the problem has not only entered the public consciousness—it has also become a part of the public conscience. At that point, things in our democracy begin to hum.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)