TY - CHAP

T1 - Politics of Exception

T2 - Criminalizing Activism in Western European Democracies

AU - Kretschmann, Andrea

AU - Fritsch, Katharina

PY - 2021/12/23

Y1 - 2021/12/23

N2 - This chapter argues that the phenomenon—which encompasses legal discourses as well as political processes and practices,—is instrumental for maintaining and reorganizing state power by framing protest as a destabilizing Other rather than as an integral part of the existing political order. In political theory it is commonplace to comprehend a formal state of emergency as a legal–political instrument when facing a crisis, that is, as a provision which is accompanied by a shift of powers from the legislative to the executive branch and by the restriction of basic rights and freedoms. Post-colonial perspectives emphasize the parallels of such current politics of exception with colonial governing. The regulation of protest through politics of exception follows an expansionary logic: more and more parts of the social are connoted as “threats” reflecting (in-)securitization processes. In late modern societies threats are perceived as difficult to foresee and thus volatile and non-containable.

AB - This chapter argues that the phenomenon—which encompasses legal discourses as well as political processes and practices,—is instrumental for maintaining and reorganizing state power by framing protest as a destabilizing Other rather than as an integral part of the existing political order. In political theory it is commonplace to comprehend a formal state of emergency as a legal–political instrument when facing a crisis, that is, as a provision which is accompanied by a shift of powers from the legislative to the executive branch and by the restriction of basic rights and freedoms. Post-colonial perspectives emphasize the parallels of such current politics of exception with colonial governing. The regulation of protest through politics of exception follows an expansionary logic: more and more parts of the social are connoted as “threats” reflecting (in-)securitization processes. In late modern societies threats are perceived as difficult to foresee and thus volatile and non-containable.

KW - Sociology

KW - Law

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/154ff2e0-d71a-36b4-807b-9e231f30f9a9/

U2 - 10.4324/9781003144229-3

DO - 10.4324/9781003144229-3

M3 - Chapter

SN - 9780367700119

SN - 978-0-367-70012-6

SP - 19

EP - 29

BT - Criminalization of Activism

A2 - Weis, Valeria Vegh

PB - Routledge Taylor & Francis Group

CY - London

ER -