Elucidate the meanings inherent in the term ‘political’ with appropriate illustrations. (20m). (UPSC CSE Mains 2024- Political Science and International Relations, Paper 1)
- Hannah Arendt was an US philosopher and political theorist. Born in Germany she established her reputation as a political thinker with one of the first works to propose that Nazism and Stalinism had common roots.
- She argued that theories of politics have been led astray by several prejudices: that politics is a universal part of human life; that politics is a means to nonpolitical ends; that rule is essential to politics; and that politics is ultimately a struggle for power. In her view, these prejudices distort our view of politics by abstracting the word from the history of the classical polis, which was the origin of the word “politics” and the prime example of a political community. Arendt worked out her concept of the political by retrieving and conceptualizing the non-theoretical understanding of politics implicit in classical literature and history. She argued that the polis excluded relations of rule between citizens; citizens ruled over those excluded from politics (women, children, slaves, foreigners), but that full citizens themselves were not divided into rulers and ruled. Politics, in her view, is a way of being together, based on principles of equality and nonviolence, in which people decide what to do and how to live together through open debate and common deliberation on matters of public concern.
- Arendt, states that the public realm, or polis is a common ground for political action. In her book The Human Condition (1958,) she compares the political arena to a “table” where we gather around. This” table” is an analogy for that space, our shared political world; a table that relates people together with a common cause, but simultaneously separates them by sitting in their own chairs and having their own stances. This space of appearance allows the people to practice politics, where they encounter each other and experience the existence of others. In the other words, they experience other people in the plurality, which significant aspect in the political action. Plurality is the condition of human condition. Plurality means that no two human beings as are alike, so people have to relate to one another, must come together, find ways to live together, negotiate their differences, exchanges opinions, established relational political institution.
- According to Arendt being human is being political, and we have to go out in public, take place at that table, take initiative to meet others and speak out. She argues that in totalitarian rule, there are no rooms, much less table for people to act and speak, because totalitarianisms is the complete opposite of genuine politics. Arendt explains and defines totalitarianisms as an unprecedented event. Under totalitarianisms people are brought together as a single whole rather than having a distinct identity. For Arendt, the most characteristic of totalitarianisms rule is the way that abolishes the space between people. In the other words, there is no space for freedom.
- Arendt concerns more on freedom in the realm of politics is being experienced in public, disclosing myself with others. In the other word, freedom is the capacity to begin something anew with others and by doing that performing the unexpected events in the public sphere. Through acting and speaking in the public space, men reveal his potential to the world. In On Revolution, Arendt points out that in the revolution of America is a good example how freedom should be exercised as the capacity to begin together with other man in the public space, calling people to participate in the public realm to achieve the “public happiness” which is referred to in political freedom.
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