The Anarchy of Power

Abstract

This article offers an account of the anarchy of power in Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer corpus. From this perspective, governmental power is anarchic in the twofold sense of lacking an independent legitimating foundation and being divided between ontology (what it is to be) and praxis (what is done). To think beyond the bind of anarchic power, Agamben and others have conceptualized a destituent politics that abandons legitimation in an independent authority. Attending to recent interpretations of destitution, this article proposes that, precisely in light of the anarchic structure of power as it shows itself today, destituent politics harbor a unique risk of lethal violence. Avoiding this risk requires cultivating a political force or potentiality that, as Agamben puts it, would be “strong enough to remain destituent.”