nce of a free republic" (Arendt 220). Arendt has established civil rights as an entity separate from political freedom. Civil rights apply to liberation and not political freedom, because civil rights do not necessarily assume the presence of freedom. Civil rights can be granted to a population under the rule of a tyrant in the form of a law, but when the population is not part of the formation of such a law then political freedom does not exist. According to Arendt, the presence of poverty further suppresses the possibility of political freedom. If individuals are forced to focus their efforts towards the fulfillment of biological needs such as food and shelter then they cannot possibly be political. Capitalism also prevents the existence of Arendt's political freedom because capitalism is based on consumption. When the members of society are focused on obtaining goods and material possessions they become equally preoccupied as individuals engulfed in poverty. Capitalism creates greed and unnecessary needs and desires that inhibit political freedom. Political freedom requires an absence of as many social conditions as it does a presence of other conditions. Arendt puts forth not only criticism of past governments, but also the criteria she deems essential for a society to be politically free. She insinuates that society, in order to be politically free, needs to first be liberated from the constraints of aristocracy. Arendt asserts "that liberation may be the condition of freedom but by no means leads automatically to it"(Arendt 29). Liberation has more to do with obtaining civil rights than it does with practicing political freedom. For Arendt, political freedom "means the right to be a participator in government, or it means nothing" (Arendt 218). Political freedom, as discussed in "The Revolutionary Tradition and Its Lost Treasure," obliges the presence of a population who thinks in terms of "we" rather than "I." Wh...
