“Be subject to a king, be subject to a nation - Is it not all the same to us?” Like the meaning of these verses in the poem “From Pindemonte”, A. Pushkin was opposed to democracy, considering it as a tyranny the same as czarism. But, indeed, was Pushkin the constant enemy of democracy? The aim of this work is to illuminate Pushkin s complicated attitude toward democracy in his liberalism, and to discuss its meaning from the point of view of democratic political philosophy. Pushkin rejected democracy, citing the dangers of the tyranny of the majority inherent in democracy, as seen in Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America”, besides the revolutionary dictatorship brought about by the radical democratic revolution. What Tocqueville s book raised as a problem of democracy above all for Pushkin is the ideal of equality that governs society. Through Tocqueville, Pushkin was convinced that an egalitarian society that leads to the annihilation or corruption of freedom must be rejected. However Pushkin did not unconditionally deny equality. Revealing his thoughts on democracy, he expressed the ideal of democracy in which equality and inequality are in harmony. In the name of ‘true equality’, he sought a new approach to equality rather than uniform equality and therefore a new understanding of democracy. The ‘true equality’ that Pushkin refers to is nothing but the ‘equal opportunity’ pursued by modern political liberalism. He spoke of the moral imperative of equality of opportunity through the position that inequality is justice. In this way, Pushkin s understanding of democracy meets with modern liberal political philosophy through the defense of inequality, which speaks of the logic of equal opportunity.
Ⅰ. “차르에 의지하든 인민에 의지하든”
Ⅱ. 푸시킨과 토크빌
Ⅲ. “이건 다 말, 말, 말.” - 정의로운 불평등
Ⅳ. 정신적 귀족주의