Politički paradoks
THE POLITICAL PARADOX

Summary/Abstract: The author used the 1956 Hungarian anti-Stalinist rebellion as the starting point for a thorough rethinking of the political structures of man’s existence, in particular of political power. Such a rethinking is based on the insight regarding the autonomy of the political with regard to the economic and class structure of society. From this is derived not only the specific rationality of state and politics, but also the specific political evils related to the very nature of political power. Specific rationality, specific evil – therein lies the double and paradoxical originality of the political. It is the task of political philosophy to make this originality explicit and to clarify its paradox: the greatest political evil is linked with the greatest political rationality, and political alienation exists precisely because the political is relatively autonomous. The autonomy of the political is not only the idea of man’s stepping into man-hood through citizen-hood, but also the distinctive character of the political connection in relation to the economic connection. The understanding and criticism of the political paradox can be approached only if one sets clear boundaries to the political sphere and perceives the validity of the distinction between the political and the economic. Every criticism presupposes this distinction, and it does not abolish it in any respect. In order to rediscover the sense of the political, one must return to Rousseau’s reflection in continuation of a return to the thinkers of classical antiquity (Aristotle’s Politics in particular) as basis for any criticism of power. The truth of the political, as the reality of state ideality, is the legal equality of all before all, irreducible to class conflicts, to the dynamics of economic supremacy and alienation. But the state is also – will, administration and physical coercion. Thus the political as a reasonable organisation implies politics as decision: the political is always accompanied by politics. Unlike the political, which exists only in great moments, in “crises”, at “turning points”, at crossroads of history, politics is perceived as a set of actions aimed at winning, executing and retaining power. Precisely politics poses the problem of political evil. This however does not mean that power is identical to evil. But power is particularly prone to evil; throughout history it has been perhaps the greatest opportunity for evil and the greatest demonstration of evil. The reason for this is that power is a momentuous thing, that power is the instrument of historical rationality of the state. This is the fundamental political paradox. A practical solution to this paradox – to achieve that there is a state, but that there is not too much of it – is possible only through democratic control of the people over the state and through invention of institutional techniques the purpose of which is to make possible the exercise of power and to make impossible any abuse thereof.

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