As tensões entre o homem-massa e a democracia em José Ortega y Gasset

Abstract

The book "The Rebellion of the Masses", published in 1930, previously published in the Madrid newspaper El Imparcial in the form of articles, written by the Spanish Jose Ortega y Gasset, considered one of the greatest exponents of Spanish philosophy in the world presents the concept of masse’s man. The author is concerned with the rise of this masse’s man in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, under this background the author goes on to analyze the situation of Spain and Europe and the loss of its leading role as the moral leader of the world. This character who comes to dominate public life, political and non-political, taking the spaces previously intended for the elite as theaters, restaurants and other environments. Owner, according to Ortega, of an uncontrollable desire to expand his vital desires and a radical ingratitude for everything that allowed him to have an easiest existence. This unstoppable desire and the certainty that the State must provide the way to reach them bring forth what Gasset calls hyperdemocracy. Thus, this work seeks to answer the following question: would there be a tension between Democracy and the Masse’s man in the work The Mass Rebellion of José Ortega y Gasset? With studies in diverse subjects like Democracy, Direct and Indirect Democracy, Elites' Theory and the work "The Rebellion of the Masses".