Archive · 21 Aug 2026
Hannah Arendt’s Warning About How Revolutionaries Become Conservatives
Hannah Arendt said that a person who fights to change a system may become protective of it after winning.
Before victory, it is easier to criticize a system because you do not have to run it.
After victory, the person has new responsibilities and something to protect.
These responsibilities can make them more careful about change.
This does not always mean they were dishonest or hypocritical.
They may simply understand the cost of changing things more clearly.
Arendt’s idea applies to governments, companies, workplaces and other groups.
It suggests that we should notice what people defend, not only what they once criticized.
It also encourages us to watch for this change in ourselves.
Hannah Arendt wrote, “The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution.”
The quote appeared in her essay “Civil Disobedience,” published by The New Yorker on September 12, 1970.
Arendt argued that gaining power changes a revolutionary’s responsibilities, incentives and relationship with change.
People may defend a system they once opposed because they now bear responsibility for preserving it.
The pattern can appear in politics, businesses, workplaces and other institutions, and caution after victory is not always hypocrisy.
- Who
- Hannah Arendt, the German-American author, historian and philosopher.
- What
- A quote explaining that radical revolutionaries may become defenders of the new order after gaining power.
- When
- The essay containing the quote was published on September 12, 1970.
- Where
- The quote appeared in The New Yorker essay “Civil Disobedience.”
- Why
- Arendt argued that responsibility and power change people’s incentives, making them more likely to protect what they now control.
- Author
- Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
- Quote
- “The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution.”
- Original essay
- “Civil Disobedience”
- Publication
- The New Yorker, September 12, 1970
- Later collection
- Crises of the Republic
- Central idea
- Holding power creates responsibilities and incentives to defend an existing order.
- Broader application
- The pattern can occur in politics, business, workplaces and institutions.