The Practice of Politics

Abstract

This chapter provides an interpretation of Arendt’s account of action as that form of human activity which she most clearly associates with the practice of politics. By acting politically, human beings establish a common world of inter-subjective relations in which freedom is realized. Against readings of Arendt’s theory of action as implying an understanding of politics too elusive to be applicable to real politics, however, the chapter emphasizes the significance of spatiality, borders, and stability for Arendt’s account. Politics takes place in concrete public spaces which require more or less stable borders to serve their function of realizing freedom. As such a spatial phenomenon, the practice and experience of politics involve an ambiguous ingredient of instrumentality.