The text discusses the understanding of the political in the works of Simone de Beauvoir. The political as an organized public activity was one of the main areas of her engagement, as well as her essayist and theoretical work. Nevertheless, her importance for the field of political theory is only rarely recognized. Simone de Beauvoir bases her understanding of politics and the political on two concepts: first one is equality, i.e. the notion that reason is equally divided among everyone. The second concept is an imperative that injustice (oppresion and exclusion) must be resisted through transgressive collective action that erodes the oppresion. Her interpretation of the relationship between the specific and the universal is also relevant for the ongoing polemics on identity politics de Beauvoir claims that subjectivity is hybrid, and rejects the assumption of the substantiality of identity and the stability of communities. She emphasizes the differences in the concrete experiences of marginalized and oppresed people, but at the same time also recognizes the importance of shared experiences in the mobilization of political struggles. In her opinion, reflection on the systemic (re)production of injustices is necessary for discovering the common ground that forms the basis of struggle.
