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Democracy's Empire
Sovereignty, Law, and Violence

Stewart Motha (Edited by), Motha (Author)

9781405163132, Wiley

Paperback / softback, published 27 February 2007

176 pages
22.9 x 15.4 x 0.7 cm, 0.222 kg

The essays in this volume take on the challenge of explaining the current formation of the relation between sovereignty, law and violence in what is termed ‘Democracy’s Empire’.


  • Contains a situated discussion of the institution of democracy and related
    juridico-political problems
  • Examines the historical and philosophical legacies which inform Democracy’s Empire – such as the Roman Republic, the separation between Church and State in the enlightenment, formations of revolutionary violence, and the relation between norm and exception
  • Poses the problem of violence and death at the heart of the institution of democracy including examples such as South Africa and Iraq
  • Offers a mixture of historical and philosophical treatment of democracy as a juridical problem of constitutional violence

1. Democracy's Empire: Sovereignty, Law and Violence (Stewart Motha).

2. Church, State, Resistance (Jean-Luc Nancy).

3. Constitutional Violence (David Bates).

4. Sovereignty, Exception, and Norm (Andrew Norris).

5. Undoing Legal Violence: Walter Benjamin’s and Giorgio Agamben’s Aesthetics of Pure Means (Benjamin Morgan).

6. The Normality of the Exception in Democracy’s Empire (Peter Fitzpatrick and Richard Joyce).

7. Post-Apartheid Social Movements and the Quest for the Elusive 'New' South Africa (Tshepo Madlingozi).

8. The Violence of Non-Violence: Law and War in Iraq (Samera Esmeir).

9. Performing Power: The Deal, Corporate Rule, and the Constitution of Global Legal Order (Fleur Johns).

10. Veiled Women and the Affect of Religion in Democracy (Stewart Motha)

Subject Areas: Jurisprudence & general issues [LA]
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