The idea of the political, reconfiguring sovereignty and exception
Analysing theoretical perspectives of Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben
Keywords:
Political, Sovereignty, Exception, Democracy, Rule of LawAbstract
The idea of ‘political’ is the most controversial term in the contemporary social science discourse and it remains vaguely understood. The ‘political’ is the fundamental authoritative domain pertaining to the state which ropes into it one of the basic concepts of politics i.e- sovereignty. The interconnectedness between ‘political’ and sovereignty is challenged with the emergence of liberal democracy. The idea of ‘political’ in the theoretical perspective of Carl Schmitt is related to the notion of sovereignty which is in contrary to the conventional understanding of sovereignty. His idea of sovereignty is specifically related to an exception. Giorgio Agamben’s theory of ‘state of exception’ is inspired from Carl Schmitt’s idea of sovereignty and its relation to exception though it re-interpreted exception as a permanent rule. This paper attempts to analyse Carl Schmitt’s and Agamben’s theories through this interesting tripartite relation among the political, sovereignty and exception which gives an interesting account to reconfigure sovereignty and its effects felt on Indian emergency of 1975-77 and anti-terror laws in recent times. Also in what ways it appears as a challenge to the centrality of law in a democracy.
Downloads
Metrics
References
AGAMBEN, GIORGIO. (2005). STATE OF EXCEPTION. TRANSLATED BY KEVIN ATTELL. CHICAGO UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS.
GONSALVES, COLIN. (2010). “THIS IS FAKE...THE REPEAL OF AFSPA”. IN HARSH DOBHAL (ED) MANIPUR IN THE SHADOW OF AFSPA, NEW DELHI: HUMAN RIGHTS LAW NETWORK.
SCHMITT, CARL. (2007). THE CONCEPT OF THE POLITICAL. TRANSLATED BY GEORGE SCHWAB, LONDON: UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS.
SINGH, UJJWAL KUMAR. (2007). THE STATE, DEMOCRACY AND ANTI-TERROR LAWS IN INDIA. NEW DELHI: SAGE PUBLICATIONS.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Revised Copyright/CC license that applies to all the articles published after 05-02-2017
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Copyright/CC license that applies to all the articles published before 05-02-2017
Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
Author(s) will retain all the right except commercial and re-publishing rights. In the case of re-publishing, they will have to obtain written permission from the journal. Additional licensing agreements (Creative Commons licenses) grants rights to readers to copy, distribute, display and perform the work as long as you give the original author(s) credit, they can not use the works for commercial purposes and are not allowed to alter, transform, or build upon the work. For any reuse or distribution, readers and users must make clear to others the license terms of this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holders. Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the authors’ rights. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.
Research Papers published in SOCRATES are licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)