Counter‐Cultural Movements and Totalitarian Democracy

Talmon's concept of “totalitarian democracy” is generalized, to make it applicable to the variety of counter‐cultural movements of the 1960s and 1970s. In particular, we expanded Talmon's concept of political liberty into a more general desire for “liberation,” offered in different forms by these movements. Accordingly, the movements are classified by two variables: the direction of liberation (inner or outer) to which they aspired, and the degree of their attempt to monopolize the means of its realization (monopolistic or pluralistic). Four types of movements are identified and examined for their potential for totalitarian democracy: (1) Movements of Self‐Fulfillment, (2) Cults of Self‐Realization, (3) Radical Protest Movements, (4) Revolutionary Movements. Marked differences in totalitarian potential were found, the lowest in movements of self‐fulfullment and the highest in cults of self‐realization.