THE REVOLUTIONARY TRADITION AND ITS LOST TREASURE

Hannah Arendt- On Revolution

 Revolution – a movement of revolving back to some pre-established point

(restoration)
 Revolutionary spirit – public freedom, public happiness, public spirit
- “to be a participator in government”
- The act of founding the new body politic
transformation of the meanings
- The stability and durability of the new structure

 Revolutionary tradition
- The influence or “non-influence” of the American Revolution upon the course of modern
revolutions

Liberation vs. Freedom

- the condition of freedom (freedom from - participation in public affairs (Public
freedom)
unjustified restraints)

Isonomy - (ancient concept of equality) - guaranteed equality, the Polis

French Revolution
• liberation of men
• struggle over scarcity and inequality
• transformation of the philosophy of history (historical necessity “necessity became
the chief category of the political and revolutionary thought”)
• “the social question” (poverty – a state of constant misery and want - “which put
men under the absolute dictate of their bodies”) – inspired the multitude of the poor
• Marx – transformation of the “social question” into a political force in terms of
“exploitation” – “French Revolution failed to solve the social question”
• Not freedom but abundance (misery and wants) became the aim of revolution
• Constitution – to limit government (guarantee of civil rights and liberties)
• perception of “action” – rebellion and tearing down
• revolutionary tradition after the French Revolution – caused terror and absolute
disaster

American Revolution
• practical experiences of the colonial period - remembrance
 • search for political freedom
• no case of misery and want
• the problem was not social but political
• constitutio libertatis – foundation of freedom
• constitution not to limit government but how to found a new one
• perception of “action” – founding anew and building up
• foundation of freedom but no space to exercise it – forgetting the political importance
of townships the original springs of all political activity
• critique of representation
• the failure to incorporate the townships and their meeting halls into the
constitution

- Question of Representation
o “The business of the government has become the privilege of the few”
o Rotation in office highly valued by the Founders
 “elective despotism”
 lethargy and inattention to public business
 a public space only for the representatives of the people

Ward System gradation of authorities:

Elementary republics of wards County republics State republics Republic of the

Union

Sections of the first Parisian Commune and the sociétés populaires – spontaneously
formed clubs and societies

Parisian Commune of 1871 Russian Revolution of 1905

- Marx - Lenin

• They didn’t know the Jefferson’s ward system but they knew the revolutionary role the
sections of the first Parisian Commune had played in the French Revolution.
• They didn’t think of them as the possible germs for a new form of government.
• They regarded them as mere instruments to be dispensed once the revolution came to
an end.
Professional Revolutionists and Revolutionary Parties
- Lenin: “All power to the soviets.”
- Bolshevik Party
Party Systems:
- Influence of the voters on the actions of representatives through interest groups and
lobbies
- At the expense of the wishes and interests of the other group of voters
- The voters act out of concern with their private life and well-being

Representative Government

Oligarchic Democratic
- “Public freedom” and “Public - The popular welfare and private
happiness is
happiness is in the hands of the few its chief goals.

Party Systems vs. Council Systems

(Representation) (Action and
participation)
(Both were unknown prior to the revolutions)

- Never emerged during a revolution - Emerged during the

revolutions
- An institution to provide parliamentary - Sprang as spontaneous
organs of
government action
- Substance of politics is not action - Failed to distinguish
participation
but administration and administration
(working councils)