POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT ARE THE SAME? A REFLECTION DRAWN FROM HANNAH ARENDT

Abstract

This article concerns the distinction between politics and government. The aim is to demonstrate the impossibility of reducing politics to functions that are the responsibility of governments, as well as to present the importance of the establishment and preservation of the common world, where men and women may appear to other human beings, present their views and thus experience freedom. It starts from the presumption that contemporary society is characterized by the loss of citizens’ engagement with the world; one seems to have forgotten that it is in this common world that people can present their views, confront them with the opinions of others, and show their uniqueness and act. The man-of-mass has triumphed at the expense of the citizen. So the meaning of politics is subverted and government objectives are misrepresented. The citizen is someone of public “spirit” who is committed to the republic – public affair - and the common good. To understand the extent of this commitment to the public good, it is possible to assert that the commitment of each citizen to the public affair is not confined to the bilateral relationship between the individual and the state, but is grounded on the relationship of individuals to each other. So the question that imposes itself as relevant concerns that what binds citizens in political communities. It will point out that the unifying element of the relationship between citizens consists in friendship, understood as philia. The research draws upon the contemporary philosopher Hannah Arendt and her writings. The text is divided into three parts: an analysis of consent – contract – among citizens for the creation of states, unlimited communication as the new element for the link between citizens, and friendship as the bond that unites citizens in a political community.