[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-86659-en":3,"doc-seo-86659-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},86659,1374391974585,"Genevieve","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c",2,"Literature","The Communist Hypothesis Alain Badiou","The Communist Hypothesis by Alain Badiou and translated by David Macey presents a critical reflection on the meaning of “failure” and the ideological decline of communist politics after the mid-1970s. It analyzes how a “red decade” emerged through national liberation struggles, youth movements, factory revolts, and the Chinese Cultural Revolution, then contrasts this with Western anti-communist narratives. The text argues that democratic bourgeois propaganda, moral victimhood, and rhetorical conflations of Stalin, Hitler, and contemporary extremist figures undermine universal emancipation and highlight a wider crisis in the democratic West.","THE  \nCOMMUNISTHYPOTHESIS  \nA LA I N BA D I OU  \nThe CommunistHypothesis  \nALAIN BADIOU  \nTranslated byDavid Macey and Steve Corcoran  \nVERSOLondon·New York  \nFirst published in English by Verso 2010◎ Verso 2010  \nTranslation David Macey and Steve Corcoran ◎2010‘A Brief Chronolgy of the Cultural Revolution³translated by Bruno Bosted 2010First published as Lhypothése commuriste  \nAppendix first published as Presentation de Mao,De la pratique et de lacontradiction,avec une lettre dAlain Badiou etla réponse de SlavojŽižekCLa Fabrique 2008All rights reserved  \nThe moral rights of the author and translator have been asserted  \n13579108642  \nVerso  \nUK:6 Meard Street,London W1FOEGUSA:20Jay Street,Suite 1010,Brooklyn,NY 11201www.versobooks.com  \nVerso is the imprint of New Left Books  \nISBN-13:978-1-84467-600-2  \nBritish Library Cataloguing in Publieation Data  \nAcatalogue record for this book is available from the British Library  \nLibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publieation Data  \nA catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress  \nTypeset by Hewer Text UK Ltd,EdinburghPrinted in the USA by Maple Vail  \nContents  \n1  \nPreamble:What Is Called Failure?  \nI We Are Still the Contemporaries of May’68  41  \n1.May’68 Revisited,40 Years On43  \n2.Outline of a Beginning68  \n3.This Crisis Is the Spectacle:Where Is the Real?91  \nII The Cultural Revolution:TheLast Revolution?101  \nII The Paris Commune:  \nA Political Declaration on Politics168  \n229  \nIV The Idea of Communism  \n# Preamble:What Is Called Failure?\n\n1  \nThe mid-1970s saw the beginnings of the ebbI the ‘red decade'ushered in by the fourfoldcircumstances of national liberation struggles (inVietnam and Palestine in particular),the worldwidestudent and youth movement(Germany,Japan,theUSA,Mexico...),factory revolts(France and Italy)and the Cultural Revolution in China.It finds itssubjective form in a resigned surrender,in a returmto customs -including electoral customs -deferencetowards the capitalo-parliamentarian or‘Western'order,and the conviction that to want something betteris to want something worse.It finds its intellectualform in what,in France,acquired the very strangename of 'the new philosophy'.Despite the changeof name,we have here,almost unchanged,all thearguments of the American anti-communism of the  \n# THE COMMUNISTHYPOTHESIS\n\n1950s:socialist regimes are loathsome despotismsand bloody dictatorships.At the level of the state,this socialist 'totalitarianism³must be contrasted withrepresentative democracy which,while it is of courseimperfect,is by far the least bad form of government.At the moral level,which is the most important inphilosophicalterms,we must preach the values of thefree world’centred on and protected by the UnitedStates.Because it has ended in failure all over theworld,the communist hypothesis is a criminal utopiathat must give way to a culture of ^human rights,whichcombines the cult of freedom (including,of course,freedom of enterprise,the freedom to own propertyand to grow rich that is the material guarantee ofall other freedoms)and a representation in whichGood is a victim.Good is never anything more thanthe struggle against Evil,which is tantamount tosaying that we must care only for those who presentthemselves,or who are exhibited,as the victims ofEvil.As for Evil,it is everything that the free Westdesignates as such,what Reagan called 'the EvilEmpire'.Which brings us back to our starting point:the communist Idea,and so on.  \nFor various reasons,this propaganda machine  \n# PREAMBLE:WHAT IS CALLED FAILURE?\n\nis now obsolete,mainly because there is no longer asingle powerful state claiming to be communist,or evensocialist.Many rhetorical devices have of course beenrecycled in the‘war against terror'which,in France,hastaken on the guise of an anti-Islamist crusade.And yetno one can seriouslybelieve that a particularist religiousideology that is backward-looking in terms of its socialvision,and fascistic in both its conception of ac","cbCaid06SFOHl8Et","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaid06SFOHl8Et","pdf",2181131,5,1,286,"English","en",105,"# Preamble: What Is Called Failure?\n## We Are Still the Contemporaries of May’68\n## May’68 Revisited, 40 Years On\n## Outline of a Beginning\n## This Crisis Is the Spectacle: Where Is the Real?\n## The Cultural Revolution: The Last Revolution?\n## The Paris Commune: A Political Declaration on Politics\n## The Idea of Communism","[{\"question\":\"What does the book argue about the causes behind the rise and later decline of communist politics?\",\"answer\":\"It links the mid-1970s beginnings to the “red decade” shaped by national liberation struggles, youth movements, factory revolts, and the Chinese Cultural Revolution, then describes how these energies faced resignation, retreat to customs, and the persistence of anti-communist narratives in the West.\"},{\"question\":\"How does Badiou characterize Western anti-communism in moral and political terms?\",\"answer\":\"He describes it as opposing socialist regimes to representative democracy and presenting “human rights” culture as a moral replacement. He also criticizes the framing of “Good” as victims needing only the struggle against “Evil,” while defining “Evil” through what the free West designates.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the text criticize lumping together Stalin, Hitler, and modern extremist figures?\",\"answer\":\"It treats this as a symptom of intellectual poverty and as propaganda driven by the democratic West’s need to sustain its machinery, especially during periods of economic and political crisis supported by censorship, borders, and repressive institutions.\"}]",1784238925,440,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"the-communist-hypothesis-alain-badiou","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,53,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,47,50],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":11},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-communist-hypothesis-alain-badiou/86659/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-23","2026-07-16",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"What does the book argue about the causes behind the rise and later decline of communist politics?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"It links the mid-1970s beginnings to the “red decade” shaped by national liberation struggles, youth movements, factory revolts, and the Chinese Cultural Revolution, then describes how these energies faced resignation, retreat to customs, and the persistence of anti-communist narratives in the West.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"How does Badiou characterize Western anti-communism in moral and political terms?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"He describes it as opposing socialist regimes to representative democracy and presenting “human rights” culture as a moral replacement. He also criticizes the framing of “Good” as victims needing only the struggle against “Evil,” while defining “Evil” through what the free West designates.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"Why does the text criticize lumping together Stalin, Hitler, and modern extremist figures?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"It treats this as a symptom of intellectual poverty and as propaganda driven by the democratic West’s need to sustain its machinery, especially during periods of economic and political crisis supported by censorship, borders, and repressive institutions.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":25},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,100,104,108,113,118,123,128,131,135],{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},80,"literature",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":101,"show_sort_weight":102,"slug":103},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":105,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":107},"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":109,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":110,"show_sort_weight":111,"slug":112},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":114,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":115,"show_sort_weight":116,"slug":117},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":119,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":121,"slug":122},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":127},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":126,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":130},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":132,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":133,"show_sort_weight":132,"slug":134},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":136,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":137,"show_sort_weight":20,"slug":138},19,"General","general"]