Democracy versus Republic, Sovereignty versus Politics: Arendt's Critique of Nationalism, Nation State, and the Concept of Popular Sovereignty
Abstract
The paper explores Arendt's critique of nationalism, nation state, and the concept of popular sovereignty. It comprises of three parts.
The first part is concerned with Arendt's critique of nationalism, as it is presented in Origins of Totalitarianism. The second part draws primarily from On Revolution and focuses on Arendt's critique of nation state and of the concept of popular sovereignty, as well as on her notion of federal republic.
THe thrid and final part assesses the political relevance of (not only) ethnic identity in Arendt's oeuvre, drawing from 1940s her articles on sionism. Besides that, it also evaluates lasting relevance of Arendt'ß critique of nationalism, nation state and the concept of popular sovereignty in the light of such issues of contemporary European politics, as the quest for European political identity, growing popularity of nationalistic and populistic parties and movements, or the emergence of European political islamism on one hand and growing islamophobia on the other.