States of Emergency in Liberal Democracies

This book shows how emergency powers can be justifiable in liberal democracies without suspending liberal norms.

Nomi Claire Lazar (Author)

9780521172974, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 20 June 2013

190 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1 cm, 0.23 kg

'The book encourages us to actively discuss and evaluate emergencies and the use of emergency powers on both an ex ante and an ex post facto basis.' Redescriptions

In an emergency, statesmen concentrate power and suspend citizens' rights. These emergency powers are ubiquitous in the crisis government of liberal democracies, but their nature and justification is poorly understood. Based on a pluralist conception of political ethics and political power, this book shows how we can avoid the dangers and confusions inherent in the norm/exception approach that dominates both historical and contemporary debate. The book shows how liberal values need never - indeed must never - be suspended, even in times of urgency. Only then can accountability remain a live possibility. But at the same time, emergency powers can sometimes be justified with reference to extra-liberal norms that also operate in times of normalcy. By emphasizing the continuity between times of normalcy and emergency, the book illuminates the norms of crisis government, broadening our understanding of liberal democratic government and of political ethics in the process.

1. The problem of emergency
2. Must exceptionalism prove the rule?
3. Two concepts of liberalism
4. Are rights derogations always wrong?
5. The rule of law and the Roman dictatorship
6. The norms of crisis government.

Subject Areas: Political structures: democracy [JPHV], Political science & theory [JPA], History of ideas [JFCX]