People experience politics in a wide variety of ways, and their attitudes toward it range from disgust and complete indifference to a burning, passionate engagement. Living in the political world, people develop everyday perceptions in which the political seems self-evident and familiar. Critical, reflective thinking, however, is capable of grasping politics as a fundamental condition of society, and from there one arrives at an understanding of the essence and existence of the human being as politically determined. All lines of analysis in this book converge on the perennial question of the meaning of politics. This meaning transcends the current state of society as a whole, mobilizing society for change.