Hannah Arendt, Biopolitcs, And The Problem Of Violence
From Animal Laborans To Homo Sacer

It would be hard to find another thesis in political theory less questioned than the traditional identification of violence and politics. This is true to such an extent that the possibility of a nonviolent politics may seem chimerical, likewise that of tracing a conceptual distinction between power and violence. Even if it is true that not all violent phenomena are political phenomena, we tend to feel quite certain that there could be no politics without violence. As we know, Hannah Arendt is among those very few thinkers in contemporary political theory who refuse the strict identification of politics and violence, arguing that violence is not necessarily inherent to the political, and that violence and power are not the same. In works such as The Human Condition and On Violence, Arendt sought to demonstrate that while power is spontaneously generated by concerted action among a plurality of citizens, violence is mute; its effect is to disperse, silence, and isolate people, disrupting the civic bonds between them.