The poet and essayist Joseph Brodsky is one of the most emblematic figures of the second half of the 20th century – a dissident and self-educated Nobel Prize winner.
The play Democracy! (1991) was created after the fall of the Iron Curtain and is about a small totalitarian country which, due to the new historical circumstances, has to establish democracy overnight by decree. Brodsky draws both from his own experience of life under totalitarianism and his perspicuous observation of the paradoxes of the much praised Western democracy. The transition is an ideal time for the abuse of democracy and for serving the personal, mainly material interests of the political elite, who have access to sources of wealth while they generously throw breadcrumbs from their table down to the crowds. Brodsky’s humorous and unusually written play is a biting political satire and more than that – an open and uncompromising reflection on the mechanisms that drive postmodern society. The downfall of ideologies has also brought about a downfall of ideals, leaving behind only market mechanisms.