ABSTRACT
For freedom, which is only seldom—in times of crisis or revolution—the direct aim of political action, is actually the reason why men live together in political organization at all; without it, political life as such would be meaningless. The highest purpose of politics, 'the end of government', was the guarantee of security; security, in turn, made freedom possible, and the word freedom designated a quintessence of activities which occurred outside the political realm. The Christian concept of political freedom, moreover, arose out of the early Christians' suspicion and hostility against the public realm as such, from whose concerns they demanded to be absolved in order to be free. The Greek polis once was precisely that 'form of government' which provided men with a space of appearances where they could act, with a kind of theatre where freedom could appear. The raison d'etre of politics is freedom, and its field of experience is action.
