Idealism and Realism: The Normative and the Empirical

Frederick Betz ()
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Frederick Betz: Portland State University

Chapter Chapter 3 in Societal Dynamics, 2012, pp 49-67 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract In explaining leadership by authorities in a society, we have seen the importance of the perspectives of realism and idealism in the historical events. Realism is the description of the actual use of power, and idealism is the justification for the exercise of power. We continue examining the historical case of the Russian Revolution, particularly in comparing Lenin’s reasoning with Kerensky’s reasoning. We see that Lenin was more realistic about the Russian political situation than Kerensky. Kerensky was more idealistic about government and also too idealistic about the Russian Army. We see that these differences in reasoning were important to the historical explanation of why Kerensky failed to keep governmental power and Lenin succeeded. Then, the history of Russia was changed.

Keywords: Perceptual Space; Discourse Ethic; Representative Government; Societal Event; Russian Revolution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:innchp:978-1-4614-1278-6_3

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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4614-1278-6_3

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