Potentiality and Actuality in Law: A Jurisprudential Reading of Agamben’s Biopolitics and Modern Democracies

This article examines the Chinese science fiction film The Wandering Earth as a biopolitical narrative shaped by an apocalyptic crisis. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s theory of biopolitics and Giorgio Agamben’s concepts of sovereignty, bare life, and the state of exception, it argues that the film depicts a form of crisis governance in which collective survival is prioritized through disciplinary control and legal suspension. Michel Foucault’s analysis of biopolitics helps illuminate how techniques of surveillance, normalization, and population management regulate bodies and optimize life in the interests of the state. Giorgio Agamben’s political theory, by contrast, reveals how the normalization of the state of exception enables sovereign power to reduce individuals to bare life. By bringing these frameworks together, the article demonstrates that The Wandering Earth exposes the paradox of biopolitics as both a politics of life and a politics of sacrifice.

<p class='p1'>El presente artículo aborda el problema de la imagen en el pensamiento de Giorgio Agamben desde la perspectiva abierta por Homo sacer (1995), es decir, en relación con los conceptos de soberanía y vida desnuda, con la finalidad de analizar la relación entre política y estética en el filósofo italiano.</p>

The previous period of United States presidential elections of 1996 has redirected the relevant scientific research to investigate the correlation online communication - political sphere. Consequently were formulated various paradigms and the most discussed was the democratic paradigm, according to which the representation serve as a basic principle of modern democracy. The study of the level of influence of new communication technologies on political sphere became, for a number of scientific investigations carried out in USA, Canada and later in some European countries such as France, Italy, the UK (in 2000 and since 2007 in Romania), an important objective of empirical research. In most cases, the first stage of the investigation of online political communication has been marked by some methodological problems such as: the changeable nature of web space, the necessity to elaborate new indicators able to represent basic aspects of studied reality, the temporal validity of the data. The elaboration of A Model of Cyber –Interactivity by Sally J. McMillan has contributed to overcome these difficulties and has demonstrated the effectiveness of content analysis as research method used for the study of Web Space dynamic reality. Later, the research team from the University of Rochester (Paul Ferber, Frantz Foltz, Rudy Pugliese) have perfected the two-way interactivity model (elaborated by Sally J. McMillan) and have it completed with three-dimensional model of interactivity for the purpose of quantitative investigation of political websites and to argue that these forms of new media correspond to the ideals of cyberdemocracy.

The Contemporary and Eccentric Position of ‘The Winnebago Man’

The Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben’s conception and critique of sovereignty has won him wide and well-deserved acclamation. In this article, however, it is argued that Agamben’s conception of sovereignty is somewhat misplaced, and, as a consequence, his positive political project of developing a ‘destituent power’ (as opposed to constituent power) is highly deficient in terms of construing a popular and viable political alternative. The critique of Agamben is developed through a close reading of Aristotle’s Politics and his notion of kurion. It is argued that Agamben’s flawed conception of sovereignty reemerges symptomatically in his extremely problematic reading of Aristotle’s Politics, and that a viable political alternative to both Agamben’s own project and the conception of politics that he criticizes can be developed through an alternative and closer reading of Aristotle.

The matter of criminal responsibility of the head officials in state is the "key question" for rule of law, being the basic principle of democracy in the contemporary democratic states. There are different solutions for it in different legal systems, depending of what idea of sovereignty is accepted and to whom it belongs. These legal systems in which, concerning criminal procedure as impeachment procedure, the parliament is in charge, are more inclined to the people's sovereignty principle and omnipotence of parliament. Such competence of parliament reflects electoral choice of the voters. The other group of legal systems include criminal responsibility procedure of the head officials in state in the competence of the highest state courts, due to its accountability and skills. However, these systems also admit the presence of some political elements in such procedures, referring to criminal responsibility of the president of the state, Prime Minister and ministers of the government, if they breach the constitution and laws in their political activities. Therefore, their criminal cases are very often in the competence of the constitutional courts, if they exist, because such special courts, in their decision making process, usually take into consideration political elements, while estimating the outer perimeter of the head official's competences. Some of the states of this group prefer the principal of equality in criminal procedure, putting it in the competence of the ordinary courts for the head officials in state as well as for other citizens, too. Although, states provide, very often, two levels of criminal responsibility of the president, Prime Minister and ministers, "impeachment" procedure on one hand, and parallel procedure in the competence of the ordinary court (general or special jurisdiction), on the other hand, just due to importance of criminal responsibility of the head officials in state.

Giorgio Agamben’s concepts of ‘the sovereign’, ‘state of exception’ and ‘bare life’ have been used by political theorists, particularly since the declaration of the Global War on Terror and during the more recent age of wars of humanitarian intervention, to conceptualize the sovereignty exercised by security states. These state processes have been mirrored by absolutization within some branches of political theory, conflating Foucauldian concepts of biopolitical sovereignty and circulatory governmentality with notions of absolutist rule, and narrowing optics for interpreting popular mobilizations around gendered ‘human security’ projects, emergency regimes and moralizing repression. Suggesting more productive directions for theory, this article generates a close reading of female activists working in an unexpected industry in Egypt who have struggled to invert and subvert absolutist and moralizing framings and have generated their own theory through practice. The ‘Natashas of Cairo’ – well organized and transnationally linked belly dancers – successfully promoted gendered popular sovereignty in remarkable campaigns between 2002 and 2006, utilizing personal-rights litigation to create frameworks to render the absolutist state more accountable; establish labor solidarities that crossed international boundaries as well as class boundaries; and articulate an alternative moral regime for dance work that rejected both ‘pornification’ and the ‘respectability politics’ of professionalization.

The contemporary democratic states consider the concept of political rights, especially the right to vote as a fundamental pillar above all other rights. The political rights are dominant only due to their implementation: people have an opportunity to exercise their power on the one hand, and transfer their power without any political upheavals on the other.
 In this regard, it is worth highlighting that the political rights are one of the corner-stone rights for modern democratic rule of law. According to this thesis, we can persist that the problems of the realization of political rights are decisive and highly important even for the declared and transitional democratic states.
 In this respect, the Republic of Armenia is no exception as the problems of the implementation of political rights are definitely the electoral rights. These rights are among the most acute social problems that young Armenian democracy has faced after the independence.
 The issues in implementation of the political rights are steadily coupled with the problems of imposing punishments for crimes directed against political rights. As the experience of the Republic of Armenia has shown, the number of crimes directed against political rights has increased over the years. The tendency of the growth of the above-mentioned crimes has objective and subjective reasons. Among the objective reasons, we can note the transitional character of Armenian democracy. As for justice, it should be noted that such problems are inherent in almost all transitional states and especially, for modern countries. It is easier to understand, when we observe the experience of communities, which try to pass from the totalitarian rails of state governance to democratic ones. From the other side, the social and economic reasons of the state, poverty of the population can be considered as an objective reason. In terms of subjective reasons, firstly, the disproportionate punishment for crimes directed against political rights should be pointed out, which are the central obstacles for the implementation of political rights.

In the Middle East and the Islamic world, there has been a great deal of cognitive and intellectual controversy about Islam's position on a number of issues at the global level, including its position on contemporary civilizational values; Like: (Human Rights - Freedom - Equality - Democracy, Citizenship,...), this debate has become more intense and heated with the attempt to globalize and mainstream these values; That they become universal common human values, even synonymous with progress and the adoption of these contemporary values, and that Islam, as a whole, has a position in every form and issue; What is Islam's position on these contemporary civilizational values? Is there a consensus between Islamic and contemporary values, or is there disagreement? What is the extent of this consensus or disagreement? Is there a match, or is there a contradiction, and where does the building of a democratic system that corresponds to the values and beliefs of the East begin? This is what this study is trying to answer by addressing the nature of the relationship between Islam and one of these contemporary values. Given the diversity and diversity of these values, the choice of the study is based on the value of democracy as a model. As the most prominent of these contemporary values, as well as many other contemporary ones; Like human rights, freedom and citizenship, democracy is often synonymous with the rest of these values. Indeed, democracy is often synonymous with progress. Thus, treating democracy as a contemporary civilizational value is the best choice - in our view - to determine the nature of the relationship between Islam and contemporary values, and the study has attempted to answer many of the questions that present the problem of studying this thorny topic; Like: The relationship between consultation and democracy - the relationship between the sale and the social contract - the concept of sovereignty in both systems - the concept and function of the State - the position on some of the problems raised and contemporary values; Human rights, political pluralism, the circulation of power, the separation of powers. The study also examined the cognitive perception of both Islamic and democratic systems, and concluded with a number of findings and recommendations.

This study examines how different political systems address the concept of legitimacy and sovereignty, focusing on three major models: the liberal democratic system (United States), the conservative fascist system (Germany), and the socialist system (Soviet Union). Legitimacy is considered a fundamental requirement for governance, as it determines the acceptance and justification of political authority. Using a qualitative and comparative approach, the research analyzes the historical, political, and ideological foundations of each system. The findings reveal that the liberal model enhances legitimacy through democratic participation, protection of individual rights, and institutional constraints on power. In contrast, the conservative fascist model limits legitimacy within a nationalist framework, emphasizing authority and state control. Meanwhile, the socialist model, as represented by the Soviet Union, demonstrates a decline in legitimacy due to centralized control, restricted individual freedoms, and lack of political participation. The study concludes that each system constructs legitimacy based on its underlying economic, political, and social assumptions, resulting in varying degrees of public acceptance and effectiveness in governance.

Achille Mbembe’s Necropolitics (2019) provides an innovative approach to dissect human relations in a contemporary world where an increasing number of people are deemed superfluous and disposable under late capitalist logic. His book offers a genealogy of the current state of affairs from a post-Foucauldian perspective that centers on the notion of race and the conception of sovereignty in Western liberal democracies. Rarely associated with Waste Theory, Mbembe articulates a necropolitical approach that complements Zygmunt Bauman’s conception of “human waste” and Giorgio Agamben’s theorizations on the figure of the homo sacer. This article thus argues that Mbembe’s Necropolitics stands as a major contribution to the field of Waste Studies, in that it encloses a reflection on the racial Other as human waste from a perspective that has not been sufficiently studied

The essay focuses on Paul Lynch’s Booker Prize-winning novel Prophet Song. It is argued that the autocratic world of the novel is best understood as a state of exception in Giorgio Agamben’s sense of the term. Using Agamben’s concepts of sovereignty and homo sacer, the essay shows that the evils perpetrated by the regime in the novel are made possible by people’s acceptance of effectiveness and sovereignty as key principles of governance. Subsequently, I demonstrate that the redemption of this violence-ridden world lies in the idea of love, which Prophet Song imagines might yet inform the functioning of the society to come.

In the August, 1926, number of this journal, Professor W. W. Willoughby presented some conclusions regarding the conception of sovereignty and the range of its applicability in political science, together with some interesting suggestions for the clarification of political theory. His article is devoted primarily to an exposition and criticism of the juristic theories of Professor H. Krabbe, and the gist of his criticism is that Krabbe, in common with the translators of his Modern Theory of the State and with Duguit, fails to distinguish between ethical and legal validity. Krabbe's attack upon the conception of sovereignty is therefore due to a confusion: The legal supremacy which the analytical jurist attributes to the state for purely legal purposes is taken as including also an assertion of moral supremacy. Accordingly, the fact that a legally valid law may be criticized as opposed to moral sentiment or to public interest is turned into an objection against the view that the state, for juristic purposes, may be regarded as a legally sovereign will. Professor Willoughby implies that clarity can be introduced into the whole discussion simply by avoiding this confusion. The justice or utility of a law is a wholly proper question for the moralist, but it is quite irrelevant to the juristic problem, which concerns merely the legal competence of the agency enacting or enforcing the law. “We find in Krabbe, and also in his translators, …. that same mistaken idea which is to be discovered in Duguit, that an inquiry into the idealistic or utilitarian validity of law, as determined by its substantive provisions and purposes sought to be achieved by its enforcement, has a relevancy to, and that its conclusions can affect, the validity and usefulness of the purely formalistic concepts which the positive or analytic jurist employs.”

Principles, Rules and Defeasibility: On the Problems of Contra Legem Decisions (Current Version in Spanish)

Monarchy has two elements, autocratic government and hereditary succession to office. After surveying arguments for and against hereditary access to public office, the paper illustrates that theoretical explanations of the rise of representative government do not account for the abolition or preservation of hereditary monarchy in contemporary democratic states. The paper then distinguishes between proximate and fundamental causes of the fall of monarchy. The former are military defeat, dissolution of the state as a result of war defeat and decolonization, and revolution. Fundamental causes are those that explain how proximate causes led to the overthrow of the monarchy and focus on the failures of monarchs to preserve national unity and to withdraw from a politically active role.