Abstract
The purpose of the article is twofold. While it aims to highlight the significance of On Revolution within the canon of Hannah Arendt's thought, its main import lies in its interpretation of a key part of the book which constitutes the crux of Arendt's proposal of a "new science of politics".
What proves central for any political order is the distinction between the source of power and the source of authority, which provides the political order with stability. The author contends that Arendt understands the founding act of a political community as containing two "vicious circles" - the vicious circle of legitimacy of power and the vicious circle of legitimacy of laws.
While the successful American Revolution found a way out of the former, the latter vicious circle, which points to the need of authority to sanction positive law, resulted in a theoretical impasse. The article aims to show that Arendt herself insists on the possibility of founding authority exclusively on a source inherent to the space of political action.