Václav Benda

∗August 8, 1946 †June 2, 1999

Czech dissident and author of Paralelní polis

Také známý jako Vaclav Benda

O osobě

Czech dissident, Charter 77 signatory, and political theorist. Author of the 1978 samizdat essay Paralelní polis, which argued that dissidents should build parallel institutions — schools, courts, media — to make the totalitarian state irrelevant rather than confront it directly.

Texty

Václav Benda · 1978 · 3 min

Paralelní polis

Benda's 1978 essay coins the concept of the parallel-society: a network of independent institutions — schools, courts, media, cultural spaces — built alongside the totalitarian state rather than in direct opposition to it. The goal is not to overthrow the system but to make it irrelevant.