Slothrop
Tight but Polite
I'm kind of guessing based on a fairly cursory reading of that Badiou article (about which I'll probably mither people for some clarifications later) that what he wants isn't either centalized democracy or totalitarianism, but if someone somewhere is trying or advocating totalitarianism, it means the question of whether or not some form of centralized democracy is the only sensible sort of political system (sorry, the only sensible way for the world to be organized, afaict he doesn't classify what he's interested in as a political system) is still up for grabs.It certainly sounds like this, doesn't it? That it's better to be wicked but strong, than well-meaning but wishy-washy...
To be fair, I'm certainly no fan of relativism either, but that doesn't mean Fascism or Communism are better than liberal democracy just because have an 'authoritarian moral framework'.
That's probably a massive oversimplification or plain wrong, so hopefully someone who knows better than me can clarify...