The tyranny of truth and the tyranny of opinion: Thinking with Arendt
Abstract
This Article is an attempt to think with Arendt about the crisis of liberal democracy in the face of the populist attack in recent decades on judicial review, human rights, immigrants, minority rights, academic and judicial elites, etc. Most of the arguments deployed against populism draw on principles and vocabulary borrowed from the liberal tradition, while few come from the separate democratic tradition. Because of this, the debate has taken on a shape in which populists claim to speak in the name of democracy—the will of the people—while liberals stand in the opposing camp, thus creating a tension between liberalism and democracy. In this Article, by reflecting on Arendt’s work, I develop a democratic, rather than liberal, argument against populism. I do so by analyzing the double role that truth plays in Arendt’s political thought: on the one hand she thinks that the idea of truth can be fatal to politics, for politics is based on opinion rather than truth, on the many rather than the one, on free citizens rather than a philosopher king. On the other hand, majority opinion can become totalitarian, crushing freedom and truth as well—and as such, it constitutes a threat to politics. In such cases, truth becomes a site of resistance to totalitarianism. Truth thus plays an ambivalent role in Arendt’s politics: at times it’s a problem, at other times a solution.
The Article tries to elicit a certain Arendtian conception of politics that has its own internal constraints—not borrowed from liberal morality—that can place limits on populist politics and thus provide a democratic-republican opposition to populist politics.
© 2025 by Theoretical Inquiries in Law
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- The Rise and Logics of Autocracy
- Comparative authoritarian law
- The last emperor? lessons for the prospects of liberal authoritarianism from Xi Jinping’s China
- Liberal autocracy: Possibility and stability
- Populist Challenges and Legal Resistance
- Democratic resistance under populist autocratization: Repression, civil society and strategies
- Countering authoritarian populists’ legal theory
- Why do we need a new theory for justifying constituent assemblies?
- The tyranny of truth and the tyranny of opinion: Thinking with Arendt
- Liberal Democracy Reimagined
- Liberalism in a post-liberal society: The Israeli case of redemptive politics and avant-garde liberalism
- Local democracy as local autonomy
- Rethinking Democratic Governance
- Participation versus effective government
- Constitutionalism vs. democracy: Four readings. In defense of a “conversation among equals”
- Democracy against liberalism and the punishment of elite deviance
- Net-zero democracy
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- The Rise and Logics of Autocracy
- Comparative authoritarian law
- The last emperor? lessons for the prospects of liberal authoritarianism from Xi Jinping’s China
- Liberal autocracy: Possibility and stability
- Populist Challenges and Legal Resistance
- Democratic resistance under populist autocratization: Repression, civil society and strategies
- Countering authoritarian populists’ legal theory
- Why do we need a new theory for justifying constituent assemblies?
- The tyranny of truth and the tyranny of opinion: Thinking with Arendt
- Liberal Democracy Reimagined
- Liberalism in a post-liberal society: The Israeli case of redemptive politics and avant-garde liberalism
- Local democracy as local autonomy
- Rethinking Democratic Governance
- Participation versus effective government
- Constitutionalism vs. democracy: Four readings. In defense of a “conversation among equals”
- Democracy against liberalism and the punishment of elite deviance
- Net-zero democracy
