Verso una politica del limite? Note sul potere e l’azione nel lessico politico di Hannah Arendt

The starting point of this essay is the Arendtian critique of violence taken as the main interpretative key of the “immense polemic" entertained by the author with the Western philosophical-political tradition. Following this theoretical path, the paper intends to discuss some recurring terms in Arendt’s lexicon. Identifying in Montesquieu and then in Rosa Luxemburg two essential references for the author of The Human Condition, the essay analyzes the questions of the limit and the divisibility of power. The thesis is that, if inserted in this interpretative frame, Arendt does not belong to the liberal tradition. The theory of action, the praise of the councils and the historical experiences of self-government along with a relational and non-violent conception of power and law are elements that allow us to identify clear radical and libertarian tendencies in Hannah Arendt's thought.