Vaclav Havel:The Politician Practicizing Criticism

Abstract

Vaclav Havel during his career as a socially engaged figure held two distinctive roles seen by various commentators as incompatible, i.e., that of the dissident and the politician. The aim of the paper is, first, sheding light on the social context within which his identity of the social critic took shape. Second, the paper offers a comparative perspective by revealing Havel‟s priorities and rhetorics during his dissident period (during which he took the role of a social critic), and after becoming a president of independent state. Via this comprison author tries to draw the reader‟s attention to the problems which identity of the social critic faces after the euphoria caused by large scale socio-political transformations has faded. Although one can see a clash of identies between the role of social critic and that of the politican, Havel himself identifies the latter phase as extension of the former. For him, the aims (creating a stable civil society and making democracy work) remain, while the role remains insignificant.