Russian Yearning for Elite Power: Nikolai Berdyaev’s Reflections on the Metaphysics of Democratism

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present Nikolai Berdyaev’s view of power and how it is exercised in a democracy. The Russian thinker treated power as an evil that the democratic system was not free from. Berdyaev regarded the metaphysics of democratism as a manifestation of human hubris and a fall into what is mediocre and devoid of deeper spirituality. He argued that power should be aristocratic, not egalitarian. In his view, only the chosen, few, the eminent, possessed the ability to guide the masses toward the highest values.