On Revolution

Arendt asserts that no revolution was ever started by the masses of the poor or as the result of sedition. Revolution is only possible where the ruler’s authority is already weakened and the military can no longer be trusted to obey the civilian government. Revolutionists often seize power easily in the initial stage of the revolution, because they are merely appropriating the power of a regime that is already disintegrating, as was the case with Europe’s monarchical regimes. However, this does not mean that revolutions always take place whenever a government’s authority is weakened: Revolutions happen only when a “sufficient number” of men are prepared for the government’s collapse and are “willing to assume power, eager to organize and to act together for a common purpose” (107).

While the main idea of revolution is to establish freedom, in modern times this has depended on framing a constitution. However, in France the first constitution, published in 1791, was “neither accepted by the king nor commissioned and ratified by the nation”; it therefore remained nothing but “a piece of paper” (116) and was followed by a succession of equally short-lived constitutions. Constitutions thus came to be seen as legalistic documents detached from reality.