Review article
POTENTIALS OF THE POLITICAL AND RADICAL EVIL OF TOTALITARIANISM: CHALLENGES OF HANNAH ARENDT’S POLITICAL THOUGHT
Luka Ribarević
; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The author outlines some of the major issues in Hannah Arendt’s political thought significant for her understanding of the political. The pivotal point of Hannah Arendt’s political thought is her renowned analysis of totalitarianism in which she demonstrates the originality of totalitarian governance and its radically antipolitical character. Using the work of Margaret Canovan as his starting point, the author gives an account of the critique of Marx and the tradition of political philosophy by Hannah Arendt in her research of totalitarianism. This criticism is based on the distinction among three human activities: labour, work, and action. By pointing out the nonpolitical character of labour and work, Arendt draws her fundamental political categories from action by means of which people confirm the plural character of their existence. In modern times, Arendt finds the genuinely political only in the short-lived episodes of revolutionary fervour during which some room is created for the free action of the individuals committed to the promotion of the “public cause”. Particularly important in her political thought is the theory of the power of judgement as a link between thinking and action. Using Kant as her starting point, Arendt draws the power of judgement from the realm of the easthetic and turns it into the key element of political action. In his conclusion, the author looks into the separation of the political from the state that Arendt is forced to make because of her own exigent concept of political freedom. Arendt embraces republican elitism that cannot be completely reconciled with the democratic elements od her political thought.
Keywords
the political; totalitarianism; action; thought; faculty of judgement
Hrčak ID:
22839
URI
Publication date:
11.1.2005.
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