Open society

Open society is an idea derived from philosophy and liberalism.

Karl Popper defined an open society as one where "an individual is confronted with personal decisions" as opposed to a "magical or tribal or collectivist society."^[1]

The opposite of an open society is a totalitarian "closed" society, like those that occurred under fascism, Nazism, and Soviet Communism.^[2]

Overview

French philosopher Henri Bergson first wrote about it in 1932.^[3] Karl Popper made the idea popular in his work The Open Society and Its Enemies.^[1]

Popper's ideas

Popper criticized historicists like Karl Marx.^[4] According to Popper, people create history through their decisions and actions. In contrast to this, historicism says there is an ideal way for society to be, and history develops toward this ideal.

Critique

According to Popper, the best form of government is a democracy.^[1] Popper says that in a democracy it is possible to have political transitions of power without bloodshed.

So-called closed societies tend to be inflexibly utopian in nature and justify suppression of discussion by appealing to people's ideas about an ideal society.

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 association and religious tolerance are very important values in an open society.