Fusing critical social theory to critical and political phenomenology, Political Poverty presents a substantial contribution to current discussions on democratic inequality, political agency, political exclusion, and the role of experience in critical theorizing. Political Poverty puts forward an experiential account of political agency that can untangle theoretical knots of the discussion on the inequality of political participation. It also delivers a set of thinking tools that enable political theorists to better understand the motivational aspect of political agency, as well as suggestions on how even seemingly hopeless situations can be addressed by determined bottom-up efforts. Readers will come away from the book with a new perspective on political agency and the problems of encouraging democratic participation.