Václav Havel: Building Beyond Democracy

This study explicates the political thought of the playwright and dissident Vaclav Havel, who emerged as the most important and visible central European intellectual during the ferment leading up to the revolutions of 1989 and now serves as President of Czechoslovakia. Havel’s political thought is centered in the interaction of three themes: the idea of a pretheoretical anti-politics from below; the phenomenon of the second, or parallel, culture; and the principle of living in truth. His ideas are likely to have great impact on Czechoslovakia and possibly other central and east European nations undertaking democratization.