The first political theory of post-Communism examines its implications for understanding liberty, rights, transitional justice, property rights, privatization, rule of law, centrally planned public institutions, and the legacies of totalitarian thought in language and discourse. The book illustrates these legacies in the writings of Habermas, Derrida, and Zizek.

Aviezer Tucker is a philosopher and social scientist, author of The Philosophy of Politics of Czech Dissidents from Patöka to Havel (2000) and Our Knowledge of the Past: A Philosophy of Historiography (2004). He published extensively in journals such as The American Interest, Critical Review, Foreign Affairs, History and Theory, Independent Review, Philosophy, Politics Philosophy and Economics, and Telos. He spent a decade working and conducting research in post-totalitarian Europe at the Central European University in Prague, Palacký University, and Charles University in the Czech Republic. He also taught and held fellowships at Columbia University, New York University, Trinity College, the Australian National University, the University of Texas, Austin, and Harvard University.

Introduction; 1. The adjustment of elite rights to interests; 2. Post-totalitarian rough justice; 3. Rough justice: post-totalitarian retribution; 4. Rough and shallow: post-totalitarian rectification; 5. The new politics of property rights; 6. Old to new totalitarianism: post-totalitarian higher education; 7. Short-circuiting reason: the legacies of post-totalitarian thinking; Conclusion. Only dissidents can save us now.