Is Polis the Answer? Hannah Arendt on Democracy/Ar Polis Yra Atsakas? Hannah Arendt Apie Demokratija (Report)

Introduction Democracy is one of empty words that inhabit the language of modern humanities and public discourse. By describing it as empty I mean that it can be filled with almost any content in virtually any context. There is no single acceptable definition of what democracy is, as it has been constructed, reconstructed and deconstructed many times in history of ideas and political practice. Even if for the sake of discussion we settle for one of the most famous formulas for democracy expressed by Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address: "government of the people, by the people, for the people" (Lincoln 1863), it is still too vague. The matter is getting complicated further when we take into account different shapes of democracy: forms of representative and direct democracy fit into Lincoln's formula, but as we move towards authoritarian democracy (if we consider it a legitimate form of democracy at all), it is not clear any more. The discussion has by no means ended and I believe that Hannah Arendt's political and philosophical contribution to this debate may prove to be useful precisely because of its controversial shape (1). Hannah Arendt's political philosophy is an interesting phenomenon, as it has been a subject of numerous and contradictory interpretations. It is at once praised and rejected both by democrats and antidemocrats; some recognize her philosophy as stable and coherent, others--as contradictory and baffling. Therefore, her political thought is not easy to classify as pro or contra democracy. It rater transgresses those classifications, which makes it even more inspirational and influential.