Notes for Seminar (2) The study of the Technologies of the self - the individual binds themselves to their own identity, and as a consequence, to the external power of the state (1.1) Agamben is focused on coming to a clea handing of what the state of exception is The modern Western state has integrated techniques of individualization The state of exception constitutes a "point of imbalance between public law and political fact that with procedures of totalization that create a political "double bind." is situated in an ambiguous zone at the intersection of the legal and the political." (p.I). which life and politics penetrate each other He provides two opposing approaches: This is the biopolitical model of power (1) Exceptional measures result from periods of political crisis and must be Foucault's model of power was created out of rejection to the understood on political and not juridico-constitutional grounds. juridico-institutional model of power - which focuses on the definition of - This is paradoxical sovereignty and the theory of the State (Home Sacre, p.10) it creates juridical measures that cannot be understood in legal Agamben's mission is to reconcile the juridico-i titutional and the biopolitical terms models of power (Homo Sacre, p.1!) The state of exception appears as the legal form of what cannot have legal form. The goal of this book is to clearly understand and clear up the ambiguous (2) The law employs the the suspension of law itself as its original means of "no-man's-land" between politics and law referring to and encompassing life . Later in the novel, Agamben will use the idea of the state of exception in union This is another paradox with the concept of bare life (Howo Sacre) to provide this clarity The state of exception becomes essential to defining a relation Claims that this process may be the key to asking the fundamental question in that simultaneously binds and abandons the living being to law political philosophy: "what does it mean to act politically?" (p.2) Agamben's work Homo Sacre illuminates this issue He discusses Foucault, who developed his concept of power from two points of analysis: (1.2) Agamben writes that the state of exception has a close relationship to "civil war, insurrection, and (1) The study of political techniques- The state places the care of resistance" natural life at its center . He uses the Nazi regime to describe the concept of a "legal civil war." - He explains how Hitler evoked article 48 of the Weimar Constitution. This measure was never repealed, and Germany remained in this state of For example, residential schools fostered a specific form of life in Indigenous exception for the twelve years Hitler was in power children that was compatible with colonial society - this fostering directly involved the suffocation of their culture. "Modern totalitarianism can be defined as the establishment, by means of the state of exception, . Furthermore, biopolitics is utilized through the sectors of economy and war of a legal civil war that allows for the physical elimination of both political adversaries and entire categories of citizens who cannot be integrated into the political system." (p.2) "The state of exception is the original structure in which law encompasses living beings This connects directly back to Schmitt by means of its own suspension" (p.3). The state of exception is intimately tied to the friend-enemy distinction, wherein the state can go so far as to establish a "legal civil war" that focuses on the . He uses the USA Patriot Act of 2001 as an example destruction of an identified enemy. This decree allowed for any "alien" that was suspected of endangering "the However, Agamben argues that the key categorical pair that founds Westen national security of the USA" to be taken "into custody' politics is not the friend'enemy distinction, but the distinction between bare Most notably, this decree striped any detained individual from having liferpolitical existence (exclusion/inclusion) (Homo Sacre, p. 12) any sort of legal status It reduced them to mere objects in the eyes of the state Agameben places a focus on the state of exception because it is a vehicle for the reproduction of . The state of exception is a tool that can be used to dehumanize certain sovereign power through biopolitical means populations and therefore bar them from any human rights they are normally "the voluntary creation of a permanent state of emergency has become one of the guaranteed under the given constitution essential practices of contemporary states [...] and the dominant paradigm for This relates back to Schmitt, who highlights that the liberal democracy government" (p ?) dangerously covers up the friend/enemy distinction Because the liberal democracy operates on the equality of human rights, we see that it must dehumanize the "enemy" to justify war (13) Agamben asserts that the state of exception serves as a biopolitical tool or violence . Biopolitics is the concept of the State having the capability to both foster and destroy life. Inclusion (foster) or exclusion (destroy) . modern democracy's specific aporia: (ah-pore-ii-ah) (Greek term for a irresolvable internal contradiction of a theory, or a state of paradox)"Behind the long, strife-ridden process that leads to the recognition of rights and formal He "will use the syntagma (phrase/term) state of exception as the technical term for the consistent liberties stands once again the body of the sacred man with his double sovereign, his life set of legal phenomena" that he seeks to define (p.4) that cannot be sacrificed yet may, nevertheless, be killed [...] Bare life remains included Further in this chapter, he will discuss different conceptions that relate, but do not in politics in the form of the exception, that is, as something that is included solely constitute the state of exception through an exclusion" (Homo Sacre, p.13) French and Italian - state of siege / emergency decrees Homo Sacre is a term that means "sacred man" or "accursed man" Anglo-Saxon- Martial Law someone who can be killed without the killer being regarded as a . He considers these terms to be "fictitious" because the state of exception cannot be murderer, and a person who cannot be sacrificed reduced to being a "special kind of law' Moreover, it is someone who is excluded, and placed outside of the law, While the aforem cted to the state of exception and its yet is fundamental to the reproduction of that very law development throughout history, they are inadequate. The state of exception is not merely a legal or juridical measure, just as it In the state of exception, citizens, particularly those who are identified as (in is not strictly a political measur Schmittian terms) an enemy or threat to the state, are reduced to being howe sacre. In biopolitical terms, they become mere bodies. Moreover, he will later discuss the German "state of necessity" in its connection to the In Nazi labour camps, the Jews lost their legal identities as citizens, and state of emergency their bodies were used to reproduce the power of the Nazi state Similarly, slaves in the US were placed outside of society, yet their labour was fundamental to it. (1-5) Agamben considers previous literature on the concept of a "constitutional dictatorship," which he In colonial times Indigenous people were categorized as "primitive" and states is really an early discussion of the idea of the state of exception (p.6) less-than-human, thus the colonial powers used residential schools to These works are important because they share a collective observation of how the two world wars reproduce their society through fostering "humanity" into Indigenous elicited a transformation of democratic regimes over time children Particularly, how the states of exception established during and proceeding the wars saw an expansion of the executive government's powers Moreover, the state of exception is revealed as a specific technique of (1.4) Agamben defines his variables government. It is not merely the evocation of exceptional measures. Agamben discusses the work of Herbert Tingsten (p.?) The concept of "fall powers" refers to the expansion of the powers of the government Agamben then considers Clinton Rossiter (p.8) . In particular, it is when the executive branch encroaches on the legislative sphere Who considers the state of exception as a necessity to the constitutional dictatorship, and by gaining the ability to issue decrees, which then have the force of law. as a "well-established principle of constitutional government" despite the risks at hand . DISCLAIMER: (in his aside) . However, his criteria of distinguishing between the constitutional and Agamben states clearly that "full powers" only describes a unconstitutional dictatorship do not actually provide a substantial difference, or possible mode of action of the executive government during a provide a way to prevent the transition between the two state of exception. (p.5) They are not quite synonymous with one Ultimately, his criteria boil down to a) necessity and b) temporariness which another. contradict his understanding that the evoked emergency measures make Tungsten concludes his work stating that regular and systemic uses of "full powers" arrangements that turn into "lasting peacetime institutions" causes a "liquidation' of democracy Rossiter concludes his book: "No sacrifice is too great for our democracy, least of all the The abolition of the distinction between executive, legislative and judicial powers temporary sacrifice of democracy itself" (p.9) through This quote also has biopolitical implications relating to the concept of homo the use of "full powers" has become a common practice In times of emergency, the sacred man becomes un-sacrifi Agamben then turns to Carl Freidrich (p.8) Because "no sacrifice is too great," in a way, the sacrifice ceases to be a Who defines an opposition that mirrors Schmitts distinction between commissarial sacrifice, as it is removed from the hounds of the law and becomes a dictatorship and sovereign dictatorship mere means to an end Constitutional dictatorship: which seeks to safeguard the constitutional order Particularly, the reproduction of the power of the State Commissarial dictatorship - evokes emergency measures to restore the constitution Unconstitutional dictatorship: which leads to its overthrow Sovereign dictatorship - evokes emergency measures to evade the (1.6) Agamben considers how the state of exception is integrated in the Western legal traditions (p. 10). constitution and alter it . He identifies two distinct ways that appear both in practice and scholarships The main issue is that a constitutional dictatorship, at any time, can transition into an . (1) States that regulate the state of exception within their constitutions or laws unconstitutional dictatorship or totalitarianism. . Namely: France and GermanyScholars favour codified provisions of the state of exception "The fact is that in both the right of resistance and the state of exception, what is . (2) States that do not explicitly regulate the state of exception ultimately at issue is the question of the juridical significance of a sphere of action that is Namely: Italy, Switzerland, England and the USA in itself extrajuridical" (p.11) Scholars like Schmitt: Two opposing theses reiterated: Criticize that you cannot legally regulate measures that exist outside the . (1) Law must coincide with the norms realm of legal and constitutional norms (2) The sphere of law exceeds the norm Agamben argues that the development of the state of exception exists "independent of its constitutional or legislative formalization" (p.10) This is exemplified by historical events The History of the State of Exception: (pp.11-22) The state of exception as seen in Article 48 of the Weimar constitution was more . For the sake of time, I won't cover this aside divisive in its function In summary, it outlines the historical development of the different forms that the state of Compared to both Italy, that did not regulate the state of exception, and France, exception has taken in different states including: France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, England that did regulate it by law and the USA (1.8) Agamben believes that the fundamental question regarding the state of exception is its location or (1.7) Agamben considers the connection between the state of exception and the "right to resistance" locus within society. (p.10) The question of how it is possible for such a measure to both suspend juridical order and reside The right to resistance is both a right and a duty: Giuseppe Dossetti within it at the same time: - The citizen has both the right and duty to defend themselves and the constitution from In truth, the state of exception is ternal to the juridical order, and those who aim to violate it the problem of defining it co zone of indifference, where The friend/enemy distinction is seen here - those who threaten one's existence, as inside and outside do not ex le each other but rather blur with each other." (p.23). it coincides with the State, are subject to violence Michel Foucault's work "Of Other Spaces" (1984). The arguments for and against codifying this measure mirror the arguments I outlined regarding the state of exception. . He discusses how the space in which we live is char prized by multiple sites that intimately Spaces created for individuals in a state of crisis. Examples include boarding or relate to one other but can never be attributed to each other (p.2). Rather, these sites have military schools, refugee camps, and the homeless encampments around North opposing functions and natures that reproduce each other. Bay. . The concept of utopias and dystopias are familiar to science fiction and political . The second, more prevalent variant is the "heterotopias of deviation" (p.5). philosophy: they are fictitious or ideal spaces of pure perfection or imperfection . These spaces are reserved to contain individuals who deviate from the "norm" of (respectively). the societies, such as jails and mental hospitals. Societies are never purely composed of one kind of space, and they necessarily contain a third, more inconspicuous, category of a site called the heterotopia (p 3). Heterotopias serve a specific function relating to all other spaces that make up society (pp.5, 8). A heterotopia could serve as a space that exposes the darkest truths of society (museum, Heterotopias are "counter-sites" that legitimately exist within cultures and are produced in the library, cemetery, memorial) founding of societies and states. They are the vehicles of enacting utopias, where "all the other or it may be a perfected and meticulous systemic environment that compensates for the real sites that can be found within the calbare are simultaneously represented, contested, and disorder of the external world (hospitals, retirement homes) inverted" (p.3). Moreover, they often include a "purification" process that either purifies by containing And despite being identifiable spaces within a state, they exist outside of all places within impurities or reforms individuals who tarnish society (p. 7). society (p.4). This is a very similar concept to the state of exception, the friend/enemy distinction in liberal democracies, and the idea of homo sacres things that are QUESTION simultaneously outside society, yet serve to reproduce it. In connection to the concept of the Bare life, friend/enemy distinction, Homo Sacre, and the state of . Foucault compares them to mirrors into a mirror, they simultaneously exception, what are some examples of heterotopic spaces within society. Either in the past or present. see themselves represented and discover their jarring absence from the space within the Residential schools mirror. Labour camps (German and Japanese in Canada, Jewish in Germany) Foucault states that heterotopias reflect society, and the images they create are The back of the bus or segregated washrooms "absolutely real" but also "absolutely unreal" (p.4). The first variant of such a space is "crisis heterotopias" (p.4)