>Politics is also a means for idea exchange, collective weighing of priorities, debate, the proposal and then choice between competing visions, etc. That's wha

>Politics is also a means for idea exchange, collective weighing of priorities, debate, the proposal and then choice between competing visions, etc. That's what happens in a political community which has already established itself as such. That's not the fundamental character of the political. Collective weighing of priorities, debate, and so on can happen on a factory floor, or a science lab, or a lecture hall. It is not a distinguishing feature, but just a process. In fact a bunch of computers can weigh priorities and evaluate proposals. What actually defines the political domain is the distinction between friend and enemy, that is to say who can exist within the group you deliberate with in the first place, and who is out, it's always a matter of identity. So not only is power, as in reserving the right to eliminate who isn't part of the community part of politics, it's the precondition for any community to actually have a political life.