ABSTRACT
The first theme of political subjectivity to be addressed is that of belonging and possession, which is in many ways the most basic and accessible. The removal of these and other contingent or variable dimensions of experience is crucial in establishing the essential structure of this aspect of political subjectivity. Now, political possessing and belonging, though pertaining to the whole, should not be taken in an overly literal or static sense. Governments, laws, and territories are in fact objects that may be imbued with the political, as it were, but they are not “the” political – which is indeed a non-objectifiable dimension of the life-world. The sense of belonging to one’s family or to a particular civic association would not have the specifically political character of belonging to the whole world, and hence would not be part of political subjectivity.
