Debating Collective Responsibility: Arendt and Young

This paper elucidates Hannah Arendt\u27s conditions for collective responsibility in light of her political writings. In turn, it pushes back on Iris Marion Young\u27s reservations about Arendtian collective responsibility and demonstrates its compatibility with Youngian political responsibility. At issue is how to understand (a) Arendtian collective responsibility as political and therefore forward-looking, (b) Arendt\u27s view of responsibility in the political realm as different from her view in the moral-legal realm, and (c) what Arendt\u27s vision of collective responsibility requires of everyone. If Young\u27s political responsibility relates to Arendt\u27s collective responsibility more than she thinks, then this may call for a significant rethinking of Young\u27s reliance on Arendt. My inquiry into their debate leads to a standpoint from which one can contribute to contemporary discussions about responsibility in a world with growing and elaborate public spheres