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SavageDemocracy
Connexions Directory of Groups & Websites 2016

Website: http://savagedemocracy.net/

Purpose: Radical political history. Writings by Terry Irving.
Radical educationist and democrat, Terry was one of the founders of the Free University (Sydney, 1967-1972), an activist in the movement to democratize universities in the 1970s, a prominent New Left contributor to Australian history in the 1980s, and editor of Labour History - A Journal of Labour and Social History in the 1980s and 90s
Terry Irving uses the term 'savage democracy' as both a description of the democracy he writes about and an indication of his theoretical position. He writes about the struggles of working people and radical intellectuals to democratise society from below, to hold their representatives accountable by the menace of mass action, and to resist the ruling ideology of 'tamed democracy' that equates democracy with electoral politics and representative government.
He believes that democracy is a utopian project, with a history of fleeting moments when people organise to empower themselves against the power of the capitalist state. This is 'savage democracy', as envisaged in horror by de Tocqueville in the 19th century and a legion of conservative 'democratic theorists' ever since. It is discussed in the essay, "How I came to write about radical democracy".

Structure: Non-Profit

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