Rosseau e Arendt: Críticos da representação política na modernidade e contemporaneidade?

Abstract

The introduction of the "representation" in politics gained force since the modern era to the present day. In the democratic political system, it has become one of the essential mechanisms, and it is no coincidence that talk constantly of "representative democracy", according to which the "rulers" act in the place of the "ruled" that elected them. For a large part of statesmen and theorists of this subject, the political representation is the necessary equivalent of democracy, thus, representative democracy appears to its eyes as the best political solution for the men and all instances of a constituted government must be directed through representatives of the people who deliberate in its place. In this sense, to imagine a politically organized society without representation, without elected representatives who act in the name and in place of the voters, or to confront the way it works at the representative system of government, it seems to be a step backwards, or a perspective “bizarre”. But, the modern philosopher, Rousseau, and the contemporary philosopher, Arendt, had different understanding and positioning of the majority, not intimidated in the face of the voices who supported and defended this political system and did not hesitate to confront him. Each one of them, in their own times, and saw the functioning of the representative system of government in which the people participate politically and exercise their freedom only in electoral periods, not as the best political solution for men, but how big a threat to freedom and the political participation of citizens; for both, political representation, at least as it appeared to their eyes, is a mechanism of political that prevents the people from exercising their true freedom and, consequently, to participate effectively in the politic. “The will,” says Rousseau, is unrepresentative, no one can have “will” in the place of another, and on the other hand, the “action,” says Arendt, can only be exercised by the individual himself, that is, no one can “act” in my place. This study will follow, therefore, the placements of these two authors in the face of political representation and the concepts they are related, and investigates its meaning and its reach as they appear fundamentally in his works Social contract and On revolution respectively.