The Jargon of Exception—On Schmitt, Agamben and the Absence of Political Society

The idiom of exception is again central to the politics of insecurity in Europe, the United States, and Australia. One of the key characteristics of the jargon of exception is its suppression of political renditions of the societal. In doing so, it eliminates one of the constituting categories of modern democratic politics, hence producing an impoverished and ultimately illusionary understanding of the processes of political contestation and domination.