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In this new book, Dimitris Vardoulakis asks how it is possible to think of a politics that is not commensurate with sovereignty. For such a politics, he argues, sovereignty is defined not in terms of the exception but as the different ways in which violence is justified. Vardoulakis shows how it is possible to deconstruct the various justifications of violence. Such dejustifications can take place only by presupposing an other to sovereignty, which Vardoulakis identifies with radical democracy. In doing so, Sovereignty and Its Other puts forward both a novel critique of sovereignty and an original philosophical theory of democratic practice.
“This book moves easily across various disciplines—philosophy, political science, theology, and literature—while illustrating certain key points with cases drawn from recent events.”
Vardoulakis's wide-ranging critique of sovereignty takes us on an exciting journey from Thucydides through Rousseau to Foucault, providing us with new perspectives and fresh insights on some of the classical sources of the western political tradition. Against the logic of sovereignty and its justification of violence, Vardoulakis puts forward an original formulation of agonistic democracy and political judgment built on the solid ground of a brilliant interpretation of Spinoza's political thought. This book will do much to keep alive the revolutionary embers in the spirit of Arendt and Derrida.
Dimitris Vardoulakis's new book, Sovereignty and Its Other, is a powerful attempt to critically analyse and deconstruct the definition and the mechanisms of the exercise of sovereignty in both its historical and contemporary versions.——Thesis Eleven
