On the thresholds of power

notes on democracy and state of exception in Giorgio Agamben

Abstract

The present article has as its main scope, in view of the dramatic situation experienced by contemporary Western democracies, to promote a discussion about how democracy and the state of exception are perceived by the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben. In order to achieve this end, several works by the author were researched and used, with the primary focus, however, being those that primarily affect politics and law. In this way, it was first promoted an initial approach to the problem of the state of exception, to confront then this issue from the point of view of the one who attempted to formulate the most rigorous theory on this matter, the German jurist Carl Schmitt. Thus, Schmitt's position on the state of exception is interpreted and contrasted with that of Agamben, which distances himself strongly from Schmitt. Finally, the article concludes with some of Agamben's remarks on democracy, where he finds a fundamental ambiguity, which, as long as it is not duly combated, will remain destined to find as innocuous and doomed all of its efforts before the process of its progressive conversion and secret solidarity with the functioning mechanisms of the totalitarian states.

Keywords: Democracy. State of exception. Giorgio Agamben. Carl Schmitt. Philosophy of Law.