Against violence, but not at any price: Hannah Arendt's concept of power.

The article discusses Hannah Arendt's concept of power. Arendt understands power in a both non-hierarchical and non-instrumental way, as much distinct from domination as from violence. By stressing the essential relational and potential character of power, Arendt shows the impossibility of human omnipotence. Her analysis of violent action as an instrumental, mute and solitary activity, which can destroy, but never generate power, and which, therefore, can never be more than a poor substitute for acting together, is discussed.