This text intends to discuss Hannah Arendt’s notion about the “right to have rights”, introduced in her analysis of the socio-historical and political elements that later crystalized in the totalitarian domination. In a first moment, I briefly present the original context in which thatArendtian notion was proposed in The Origins of Totalitarianism. In a second moment, I present the way Seyla Benhabib interpreted that Arendtian notion, byemphasizingits allegedly epistemological and moral implications in the context ofa Neokantian cosmopolitanism. In a third moment, I shall argue for a political interpretation of that Arendtian precept, in a clear contrast to Benhabib’s reading of it.Finally, in a fourth moment, I present Judith Butler’s interpretation of the Arendtian notion about the right to have rights, which emphasizes its political-performative dimension, thus highlighting its importance to understand certain contemporary political movements performed under conditions of deprivation of rights. I conclude that Butler’s interpretation is more akin to Arendt’s political thinking.
Arendt; Right to have rights; Benhabib; Butler; Political performativity