The subject of the article is the change in the status of the subject and subjectivity in the contemporary political philosophy. It is noted that the basis of the political project of Modernity was the principle of political autonomy, but this autonomy itself was connected with the radical autonomy of the subject of action and cognition. The question of how a rational politics made by such a subject is possible is revealed by the example of the concepts of H. Arendt and J. Habermas, including the assessment by both philosophers of the work of the XVIIIth century Italian thinker J. Vico. It is concluded that in modern political philosophy the emphasis shifts from the problem of the subject of the political sphere to the problem of interpersonal relations, which means not just a change of perspective, but a serious strategic change.