society by whatever means were necessary and this , as Breen notes , ‘ resulted in … the ‘ philosopher-king ’ modeling a polity and its people according to the inner light of his own mind .’ 6 For Arendt , this meant that the understanding of politics became , ‘ entirely determined by the categories of means and ends ,’ 7 and so , in turn , became entirely instrumental in nature . Thus , the hierarchy of despotism replaces the equality of the polis .
Arendt and ‘ power over ’
This Platonic ‘ reversal ’ of ancient Greek politics helps to accentuate the understanding of power as ‘ power over ’, precisely because it implies the rule of one individual over all others and , in this scenario , it is easy to see how domination and violence can be seen as justified in an attempt to realise , expand and multiply this power . If we follow this thread further , it is easy to grasp how violence could be said to have , ‘ its proper function in creating a human world , which involves a transformation of nature ,’ 8 of the very people themselves into an ordered human society . Thus it seems that the whole understanding of power as ‘ power over ’, from Plato to Thomas Hobbes and , in turn , to political realists like Weber , all of whom rely on this understanding of politics based in the notion of power as domination , is indebted to this initial Platonic ‘ reversal ’, to this understanding of power as , “ the rule of man over man – of one or the few in monarchy and oligarchy , of the best or the many in aristocracy and democracy .” 9
For Arendt , it is precisely this understanding of power that has led us to misunderstand the true nature of power in the first place and so it is this tendency to equate power with domination and violence that motivates her attempt to separate the two concepts . In fact , Arendt considers , ‘ power and violence … [ as ] opposites ; where one rules absolutely , the other is absent .’ 10 In contradistinction to the traditional equation of power with domination , then , power , for Arendt , can only ever be established through , ‘ cooperative effort between people who differ from one another yet have the capacity to come together ,’ 11 and so can only be understood as something that develops and maintains itself out of the communal relationships between distinct individuals . What is of central importance to this reconceptualisation of power is the fact that power can only arise from people working with each other as opposed to against each other . It is thus not , ‘ structures
6 ibid , 346
7
Hannah Arendt , The Human Condition , ( Chicago : University of Chicago Press , 1958 ), 143
8
Richard J . Bernstein , Violence : Thinking Without Bannisters , ( Cambridge : Polity Press , 2013 ), 92
9
Hannah Arendt , On Revolution , ( New York : Penguin , 1977 ), 38
10
Hannah Arendt , On Violence , ( New York : HMH Publishing Company , 1970 ), 56
11
Frazer , “ Power and Violence ”, 156