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Structural features of a society in a state of exception: K. Marx, C. Schmitt, G. Agamben

stmm. 2024 (1): 7-25

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/sociology2024.01.007

Full text: https://stmm.in.ua/archive/ukr/2024-1/4.pdf

SERHII MAKEIEV, Doctor of Sciences in Sociology, Professor, Head of the Department of Social Structures, Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (12, Shovkovychna St. , Kyiv, 01021)

smakeev950@gmail.com

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4418-8741

The article focuses on the structural aspect of society in a state of exception, on its interpretation by K. Marx, С. Schmitt and G. Agamben. The goal was to reconstruct the understanding and conceptual description of extraordinariness in their direct statements about the structural elements of this state in their publications. Of course, such fragments are few, so the main difficulty was to read out intuitions from the texts that allow them to extend beyond the sphere that is the defining subject of these authors’ analysis. The final result is a certain list of terms and concepts, a kind of thesaurus of structural features of a society in a state of exclusivity. All of these authorities in various fields of knowledge recognize events, such as revolutions, wars, and epidemics, as an inevitable impulse that modifies the state of society. Something that upsets the circumstances of living together within nation-states is something like a devastating earthquake, which can be predicted but not prevented. It is something that abolishes the rules and regulations that are, or are only imagined to be, normal, actualizing a mode of action called the politics of extraordinary. The authors named above look at and try to understand the organics and mechanics of extreme, unusual, exceptional cases, i. e. , states of exceptionality from different paradigmatic perspectives (extraordinary, extraordinary are synonymous with exception). The vocabulary of structural features, which is distinguished from the works reviewed in this article, forms the core of the concept, which can be the methodological basis for studying the state of exceptionality in Ukraine, which is a consequence of the Russian aggression of February 24, 2022.

Keywords: structural dimensions, state ofa exceptionality, Marx, Schmitt, Agamben

References

  1. Agamben, G. (2017). State of Exception. In: The Omnibus Homo Sacer (pp. 161-246). Stanford: Stanford University Press.

  2. Agamben, G. (2021). Where are We Now? The Epidemic as Politics / Trans. by V. Dani. London: ERIS.

  3. Calarco, M., DeCaroli, S. (2007). Giorgio Agamben. Sovereignty and Life. Stanford: Stanford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503624948

  4. Colebrook, C., Maxwell, J. (2016). Agamben. Cambridge: Polity Press.

  5. Davis, K., Moore, W. (1945). Some Principles of Stratification. American Sociological Review, 10(2), 242-249. https://doi.org/10.2307/2085643

  6. De Ville, J. (2017). Constitutional Theory: Schmitt after Derrida. Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315231884

  7. Golovakha, Ye., Dembitskyi, S., Makeiev, S. (2022). Introduction. The sociology of emergency. [In Ukrainian]. In: Ye. Golovakha, S. Makeiev (Eds.), Ukrainian society in the conditions of war. 2022 (pp. 15-24). Kyiv: Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; Interservice.

  8. Hendrix, C. S. (2010). Measuring State Capacity: Theoretical and Empirical Implications for the Study of Civil Conflict. Journal of Peace Research, 47(3), 273-285. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343310361838

  9. Kalyvas, A. (2008). Democracy and the Politics of the Extraordinary. Max Weber, Carl Schmitt, and Hannah Arendt. New York: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511755842

  10. Kelly, D. (2016). Carl Schmitt's Political Theory of Dictatorship. In: J. Meierhenrich, O. Simons (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Carl Schmitt (pp. 217-244). Oxford University Press.

  11. Magalhães, P.T. (2021). The Legitimacy of Modern Democracy: a Study on the Political Thought of Max Weber, Carl Schmitt and Hans Kelsen. New York, London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315157566

  12. MagShamhrain, R. (2023). The State of Exception Between Schmitt and Agamben: on Topographies of Exceptionalism and the Constitutionality of Covid Quarantine Measures (with Example from Irish Context). Society, 60, 93-105. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-022-00766-0

  13. Makeiev, S. (2018). Analyses of Event: Eighteen Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. [In Ukrainian]. Sociology: theory, methods, marketing, 2, 11-28.

  14. Makeiev, S. (2022а). The institutional landscape of martial law. [In Ukrainian]. In: Ye. Golovakha, S. Makeiev (Eds.), Ukrainian society in the conditions of war. 2022 (pp. 35-45). Kyiv: Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; Interservice.

  15. Makeiev, S. (2022b). Collaborations and collaborators: a structural interpretation. [In Ukrainian]. In: Ye. Golovakha, S. Makeiev (Eds.), Ukrainian society in the conditions of war. 2022 (pp. 193-203). Kyiv: Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; Interservice.

  16. Marx, K. (1961). The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. [In Ukrainian]. In: K. Marx, F. Engels, Works (vol. 8, pp. 113-205). Kyiv: State Publishing House of Political Literature, Ukrainian SSR.

  17. Meierhenrich, J., Simons, O. (Eds.). (2016). The Oxford Handbook of Carl Schmitt. Oxford University Press.

  18. Moyn, S. (2016). Concepts of the Political in Twentieth Century European Thought. In: J. Meierhenrich, O. Simons (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Carl Schmitt (pp. 291-311). Oxford University Press.

  19. Reckwitz, A. (2020). The Society of Singularities / Trans. by V.A. Pakis. Cambridge, Medford: Polity.

  20. Scheuerman, W.E. (2016). States of Emergency. In: J. Meierhenrich, O. Simons (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Carl Schmitt (pp. 347-369). Oxford University Press.

  21. Schmitt, C. (2016). The Concept of the Political / Transl. from German by A.F. Filippov. [In Russian]. St. Petersburg: Nauka.

  22. Schmitt, С. (2020). Dictatorship / Trans. from German by Yu.Yu. Korinets; preface by A.F. Filippov. [In Russian]. Мoscow: RIPOL classics.

  23. Tuomela, R. (2013). Social ontology: Collective intentionality and group agents. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199978267.001.0001

Received 31.10.2023

Structural features of a society in a state of exception: K. Marx, C. Schmitt, G. Agamben

stmm. 2024 (1): 7-25

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/sociology2024.01.007

Full text: https://stmm.in.ua/archive/ukr/2024-1/4.pdf

SERHII MAKEIEV, Doctor of Sciences in Sociology, Professor, Head of the Department of Social Structures, Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (12, Shovkovychna St. , Kyiv, 01021)

smakeev950@gmail.com

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4418-8741

The article focuses on the structural aspect of society in a state of exception, on its interpretation by K. Marx, С. Schmitt and G. Agamben. The goal was to reconstruct the understanding and conceptual description of extraordinariness in their direct statements about the structural elements of this state in their publications. Of course, such fragments are few, so the main difficulty was to read out intuitions from the texts that allow them to extend beyond the sphere that is the defining subject of these authors’ analysis. The final result is a certain list of terms and concepts, a kind of thesaurus of structural features of a society in a state of exclusivity. All of these authorities in various fields of knowledge recognize events, such as revolutions, wars, and epidemics, as an inevitable impulse that modifies the state of society. Something that upsets the circumstances of living together within nation-states is something like a devastating earthquake, which can be predicted but not prevented. It is something that abolishes the rules and regulations that are, or are only imagined to be, normal, actualizing a mode of action called the politics of extraordinary. The authors named above look at and try to understand the organics and mechanics of extreme, unusual, exceptional cases, i. e. , states of exceptionality from different paradigmatic perspectives (extraordinary, extraordinary are synonymous with exception). The vocabulary of structural features, which is distinguished from the works reviewed in this article, forms the core of the concept, which can be the methodological basis for studying the state of exceptionality in Ukraine, which is a consequence of the Russian aggression of February 24, 2022.

Keywords: structural dimensions, state ofa exceptionality, Marx, Schmitt, Agamben

References

  1. Agamben, G. (2017). State of Exception. In: The Omnibus Homo Sacer (pp. 161-246). Stanford: Stanford University Press.

  2. Agamben, G. (2021). Where are We Now? The Epidemic as Politics / Trans. by V. Dani. London: ERIS.

  3. Calarco, M., DeCaroli, S. (2007). Giorgio Agamben. Sovereignty and Life. Stanford: Stanford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503624948

  4. Colebrook, C., Maxwell, J. (2016). Agamben. Cambridge: Polity Press.

  5. Davis, K., Moore, W. (1945). Some Principles of Stratification. American Sociological Review, 10(2), 242-249. https://doi.org/10.2307/2085643

  6. De Ville, J. (2017). Constitutional Theory: Schmitt after Derrida. Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315231884

  7. Golovakha, Ye., Dembitskyi, S., Makeiev, S. (2022). Introduction. The sociology of emergency. [In Ukrainian]. In: Ye. Golovakha, S. Makeiev (Eds.), Ukrainian society in the conditions of war. 2022 (pp. 15-24). Kyiv: Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; Interservice.

  8. Hendrix, C. S. (2010). Measuring State Capacity: Theoretical and Empirical Implications for the Study of Civil Conflict. Journal of Peace Research, 47(3), 273-285. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343310361838

  9. Kalyvas, A. (2008). Democracy and the Politics of the Extraordinary. Max Weber, Carl Schmitt, and Hannah Arendt. New York: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511755842

  10. Kelly, D. (2016). Carl Schmitt's Political Theory of Dictatorship. In: J. Meierhenrich, O. Simons (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Carl Schmitt (pp. 217-244). Oxford University Press.

  11. Magalhães, P.T. (2021). The Legitimacy of Modern Democracy: a Study on the Political Thought of Max Weber, Carl Schmitt and Hans Kelsen. New York, London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315157566

  12. MagShamhrain, R. (2023). The State of Exception Between Schmitt and Agamben: on Topographies of Exceptionalism and the Constitutionality of Covid Quarantine Measures (with Example from Irish Context). Society, 60, 93-105. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-022-00766-0

  13. Makeiev, S. (2018). Analyses of Event: Eighteen Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. [In Ukrainian]. Sociology: theory, methods, marketing, 2, 11-28.

  14. Makeiev, S. (2022а). The institutional landscape of martial law. [In Ukrainian]. In: Ye. Golovakha, S. Makeiev (Eds.), Ukrainian society in the conditions of war. 2022 (pp. 35-45). Kyiv: Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; Interservice.

  15. Makeiev, S. (2022b). Collaborations and collaborators: a structural interpretation. [In Ukrainian]. In: Ye. Golovakha, S. Makeiev (Eds.), Ukrainian society in the conditions of war. 2022 (pp. 193-203). Kyiv: Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; Interservice.

  16. Marx, K. (1961). The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. [In Ukrainian]. In: K. Marx, F. Engels, Works (vol. 8, pp. 113-205). Kyiv: State Publishing House of Political Literature, Ukrainian SSR.

  17. Meierhenrich, J., Simons, O. (Eds.). (2016). The Oxford Handbook of Carl Schmitt. Oxford University Press.

  18. Moyn, S. (2016). Concepts of the Political in Twentieth Century European Thought. In: J. Meierhenrich, O. Simons (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Carl Schmitt (pp. 291-311). Oxford University Press.

  19. Reckwitz, A. (2020). The Society of Singularities / Trans. by V.A. Pakis. Cambridge, Medford: Polity.

  20. Scheuerman, W.E. (2016). States of Emergency. In: J. Meierhenrich, O. Simons (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Carl Schmitt (pp. 347-369). Oxford University Press.

  21. Schmitt, C. (2016). The Concept of the Political / Transl. from German by A.F. Filippov. [In Russian]. St. Petersburg: Nauka.

  22. Schmitt, С. (2020). Dictatorship / Trans. from German by Yu.Yu. Korinets; preface by A.F. Filippov. [In Russian]. Мoscow: RIPOL classics.

  23. Tuomela, R. (2013). Social ontology: Collective intentionality and group agents. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199978267.001.0001

Received 31.10.2023

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