From Schmitt to Foucault: Inquiring the Relationship between Exception and Democracy

Raimondi, S. 2016. From Schmitt to Foucault: Inquiring the Relationship between Exception and Democracy. Democratic Theory. 3 (1), pp. 52-70. https://doi.org/10.3167/dt.2016.030104

TitleFrom Schmitt to Foucault: Inquiring the Relationship between Exception and Democracy
AuthorsRaimondi, S.
Abstract

This article examines the debated relationship between liberal- democratic politics and states of exception in conditions of emergency. After Walter Benjamin and Giorgio Agamben, it is often maintained that today we live in a situation of perennial exceptionalism, where emergency measures have become a regular practice even by governments we name ‘democratic’. In these circumstances, exception is deemed to threaten democracy and hinder individual and collective political agency. Yet, such interpretation remains rigidly focused on the expanded governmental powers ushered by the exception. The article first unpacks how the relationship between exception and democracy has been differently addressed by juridical and biopolitical approaches. Then, it attempts an alternative heuristic: it discusses possibilities of democratic associative practices in emergency by looking at the notion of resistance that Michel Foucault links with power. This route remains unexplored in the literature on the concept of the exception.

Keywordsexception; liberal democracy; resistance; Scarry; state of emergency; threat to democracy
JournalDemocratic Theory
Journal citation3 (1), pp. 52-70
ISSN2332-8894
2332-8908
Year2016
PublisherBerghahn
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.3167/dt.2016.030104
Publication dates
Published01 Jun 2016

Related outputs

Rethinking the norm of Life Beyond Biopolitics. Towards an Ethical Framework
Raimondi, S. 2018. Rethinking the norm of Life Beyond Biopolitics. Towards an Ethical Framework. PhD thesis University of Westminster School of Social Sciences https://doi.org/10.34737/qv978

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