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Agora.EffectivePoliticalAgencyr1.29 - 30 Sep 2023 - 14:05 - GregorioIvanoff

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Citizenship, Agency, and Collective Identity


(Hannah Arendt. Available from < http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/arendt/ >. access on 19 January 2015.)


Português - Arendt's participatory conception of citizenship provides the best starting point for addressing both the question of the constitution of collective identity and that concerning the conditions for the exercise of effective political agency.

With respect to the first claim, it is important to note that one of the crucial questions at stake in political discourse is the creation of a collective identity, a “we” to which we can appeal when faced with the problem of deciding among alternative courses of action. Since in political discourse there is always disagreement about the possible courses of action, the identity of the “we” that is going to be created through a specific form of action becomes a central question. By engaging in this or that course of action we are, in fact, entering a claim on behalf of a “we,” that is, we are creating a specific form of collective identity. Political action and discourse are, in this respect, essential to the constitution of collective identities.

This process of identity-construction, however, is never given once and for all and is never unproblematic. Rather, it is a process of constant renegotiation and struggle, a process in which actors articulate and defend competing conceptions of cultural and political identity. Arendt's participatory conception of citizenship is particularly relevant in this context since it articulates the conditions for the establishment of collective identities. Once citizenship is viewed as the process of active deliberation about competing identities, its value resides in the possibility of establishing forms of collective identity that can be acknowledged, tested, and transformed in a discursive and democratic fashion.

With respect to the second claim, concerning the question of political agency, it is important to stress the connection that Arendt establishes between political action, understood as the active engagement of citizens in the public realm, and the exercise of effective political agency. This connection between action and agency is one of the central contributions of Arendt's participatory conception of citizenship. According to Arendt, the active engagement of citizens in the determination of the affairs of their community provides them not only with the experience of public freedom and public happiness, but also with a sense of political agency and efficacy, the sense, in Thomas Jefferson's words, of being “participators in government”. In her view only the sharing of power that comes from civic engagement and common deliberation can provide each citizen with a sense of effective political agency. Arendt's strictures against political representation must be understood in this light. She saw representation as a substitute for the direct involvement of the citizens, and as a means whereby the distinction between rulers and ruled could reassert itself. As an alternative to a system of representation based on bureaucratic parties and state structures, Arendt proposed a federated system of councils through which citizens could effectively determine their own political affairs. For Arendt, it is only by means of direct political participation, that is, by engaging in common action and collective deliberation, that citizenship can be reaffirmed and political agency effectively exercised.


Keywords: identity construction in player types, policy development games, public policy analysis, public policy reorganization, networked information economy, effective state apparatus, effective political campaign, effective multilevel governance, public-private ties, public-private partnerships, mono-thematic governments, governance in action, collective intentionality, political structures, embedded autonomy, human rights, democratic decentralisation, poverty reduction, global justice, effective states, governance competitiveness, governance reforms, political settlement, political power, effective government, social liberation, welfare state, stakeholders identification, global citizenship, crony capitalism, close relationships, persistent corruption, tax reform, effective politician, state development, policy alternatives, pragmatic approach, labor freedom, problem solving, interesting proposals, stakeholder engagement, political agency, political representation, effectiveness, council, sequestration, inflation, effectuation, engagement, economy, performance, incentives, priorities, delegation, innovation, corruption, Hannah Arendt, United Nations


Português: agência política eficaz


Outcomes: world in 2016


Hannah Arendt. Available from < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Arendt >. access on 3 January 2015.

Hannah Arendt. Available from < http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/arendt/ >. access on 19 January 2015.

MICHENER, Greg; GAFFNEY, Chris. Explaining Brazil's Vinegar Revolt: Brazil's Vinegar Revolt follows an archetypal narrative of taxation without representation or social returns, 27 Jun 2013. Available from < https://web.archive.org/web/20130701000617/http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/06/201362411928841390.html >. access on 19 January 2015.


http://www.google.com.br/search?hl=pt-BR&q=orientation+social+human+%22effective+political+agency%22+council&btnG=Pesquisar


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-- GregorioIvanoff - 03 Jan 2015
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