Open society
 | This article does not have any sources. (January 2025) |
Open society is a an idea from philosophy and Liberalism. French philosopher Henri Bergson first wrote about it in 1932. Karl Popper made the idea popular in his work The Open Society and Its Enemies. It is typically framed in opposition to totalitarian "closed" society such as under Fascism, National Socialism and Soviet Style Communism. Open society is rooted in Plato, Hegel and Marx. Popper mainly criticized Historicism. According to Popper, everyone creates history through his or her decisions and actions. In contrast to this, Historicism says there is an ideal, or an ideal form history should (or is) necessarily developing towards. So-called closed societies tend to be inflexibly utopian in nature and justify suppression of discussion by an appeal to whatever "settled" end form it necessarily has concluded is the "to be aspired to" final form. In contrast, in an open society, discussion should always be possible. These discussions should also permit cultural changes. For this reason, freedom of opinion, freedom of speech, freedom of assocciation and religious tolerance are values that are very important in an open society.
According to Popper, the best form of government is a democracy. Popper says that in a democracy it is possible to have political transitions of power without bloodshed.