Poder, violência e revolução no pensamento político de Hannah Arendt

I discuss the Arendtian distinctions between power and violence and refer them to her analysis of modern revolutions. After retracing that distinction, I discuss its relational character and the interpretations that stress its supposedly rigid and essentialistic features. By highlighting its relational dimension, I argue that Arendt’s distinctions allow us to understand differences between diverse phenomena as well as their intrinsic relations, so that thinking the political requires thinking violence, and thinking the public implies considering the private. Finally, I argue that the legacy of Arendt’s analysis of revolutions reside in suggesting ways to revitalize the exercise of present democracy.