What We're Reading: Arendt on the Political 

By Samantha Hill

In an Interview with the Cambridge blog fifteen eightyfour, David Arndt discusses his new book Arendt on the Political. The book addresses the questions of politics and the political sphere while thinking about the underlying problems of democratic politics. 
 

Let’s start with a simple question.  What is your book about?
It’s on the question: What is politics? What defines the political sphere? How is politics different from economics, law, morality, religion, or warfare?

Why do these questions matter?
They underlie questions of democratic politics: What view of politics is conducive to a strong and just polity? And what views tend to weaken and corrupt a polity?

And your answer is…?
There are several views that are weakening and corrupting American as a political community. Politics is viewed in economic terms, in technocratic terms, in religious terms, etc. But the most common view today understands politics as a war for power. The rhetoric of politics as warfare permeates American political discourse.