Monography profile

Political thought in Eastern Central Europe is still one of the neglected topics in the historiography of political ideas. Dirk Dalberg attempts to fill this gap somewhat with his interpretative political science work. His aim is to create a greater awareness of the political thought of Czech and Slovak dissidents and to complete the historiography of European political thought. As his objects of study he uses the Czech philosopher, prose writer and poet Egon Bondy (1930-2007), the Czech publicist Petr Uhl (1941-2021), the Slovak philosopher Miroslav Kusý (1931-2019) and the Czech philosopher Milan Šimečka (1930-1990), who worked in Slovakia. These political thinkers, who to date have received little international attention, practised active political dissent from the social and political conventions in Czechoslovakia in the years 1968-1989. This led them into conflict with the ruling communist party. The four authors critically examined the political present in their homeland from a Marxist perspective and reached quite similar conclusions. In addition, they formulated their own ideas of a better political system. While Bondy and Uhl remained true to their Marxist attitudes. Kusý and Šimečka turned to the liberal democracy realised in Western Europe. Their thinking analysed by Dalberg in terms of democratic theory and the history of ideas is an expression of a transfer of ideas. It reflects and processes Western as well as Eastern political thought and at the same time illustrates references back to older Czech and Slovak ideas.