Imperialism politically emancipated the bourgeoisie after it had been excluded from national government.

Evidence

Power became the essence of political action and the center of political thought when it was separated from the political community which it should serve. This, it is true, was brought about by an economic factor. But the resulting introduction of power as the only content of politics, and of expansion as its only aim, would hardly have met with such universal applause, nor would the resulting dissolution of the nation’s body politic have met with so little opposition, had it not so perfectly answered the hidden desires and secret convictions of the economically and socially dominant classes. The bourgeoisie, so long excluded from government by the nation-state and by their own lack of interest in public affairs, was politically emancipated by imperialism. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 376

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes Arendt’s central thesis term ‘imperialism as the political emancipation of the bourgeoisie’ — a key building block for the scaffolding toolkit.
• XREF: Connects to the Islamophobia field’s use of Arendt on race-thinking and the bourgeoisie’s role in colonial/imperial projects; also links to the idea of the nation-state’s dissolution through expansion.