Critique of violence : a study of the relation between politics and violence in some modern political theories

Abstract

This thesis aims at understanding the relationship between violence and politics in twentieth century political thought. To this end, the study looks at the works of selected thinkers and suggests a threefold categorization of existing approaches: a ‘non-problematization of the relationship between violence and politics’ exemplified in the liberal-democratic paradigm, a ‘nonproblematization of violence in politics’ in some critiques of liberal thought and the position of ambivalence, which suggests a historical relationship between violence and politics. The thesis moves to a further analysis of Hannah Arendt and Michel Foucault, whose works are considered as representing the third position and discuss their analysis of the relationship between violence and politics with a focus on power and revolution.