Theorizing the social foundations of exceptional security politics: Rights, emotions and community

Abstract

This article theorizes the social processes through which purportedly liberal democratic states compromise fundamental rights in times of perceived security crises. It has become increasingly common to suggest that a general culture of fear serves both as the motor and the outcome of exceptional security politics. This article suggests instead that the transgression of fundamental rights in the name of security is intimately connected to collective feelings of humiliation and the reassertion of self-worth through efforts to re-establish the integrity of imagined communities. To demonstrate this, the article highlights the dual character of rights, having both a formal and a symbolic function, associated with collective emotions. By theorizing the connections between rights, emotions and belonging the article offers the building blocks for a more nuanced and possibly more accurate understanding of why exceptional security politics tend to elicit such broad public support in spite of its often-glaring contradictions to fundamental principles of liberal democracy.