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Oases in the Desert: Hannah Arendt on Democratic Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Jeffrey C. Isaac
Jeffrey C. Isaac
Affiliation:
Indiana University, Bloomington
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Abstract

Hannah Arendt never wrote systematically on the subject of democracy. In her book of greatest relevance to the subject, On Revolution, she criticized liberal democracy, and defended a conception of virtuous political “elites,” leading most commentators to view her as an opponent of democracy. I argue that Arendt defended a distinctive conception of grass-roots democracy, and that her conception of elites is distinctively democratic rather than anti-democratic. I bolster this argument by examining her historical context, and conclude by assessing the relevance of Arendt's conception of democracy.

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Articles
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American Political Science Review , Volume 88 , Issue 1 , March 1994 , pp. 156 - 168
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1994

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