In the book The Political, Stefano Bartolini attempts to define politics starting from a particular type of action aimed at seeking compliance, specifically that which takes place within closed social fields. This attempt represents an important and innovative contribution to empirical political theory. However, some points seem to present some critical aspects worthy of further reflection and discussion. Firstly, it is disputable the higher degree of “politicity” assigned to the quest for compliance that takes place in closed social fields with government, as opposed to “natural” ones (such as international arenas), characterised by the absence of a centralised authority. Secondly, a definition of politics unbalanced on the side of the production and effectiveness of conformity, while neglecting that of its pursuit, which is linked to the relevant dimension of the struggle for power and the strategies that characterise it. A final observation concerns the way in which the governmental arenas are defined, which would always be associated with the monopoly of violence, which is actually a circumscribed experience in time and space, specifically that of modern nation states