Homo Sacer

Homo Sacer

Giorgio Agamben

Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life (1995) stands as a watershed text in political philosophy, offering an incisive analysis of how states of exception can threaten democratic governance. Building on Carl Schmitt's provocative claim that "the sovereign is he who decides on the exception," Agamben uncovers the troubling paradox at the heart of modern political systems: that the legal order in fact depends on the power to suspend itself.

The text revolves around the ancient Roman figure of homo sacer, an individual reduced to a peculiar status Agamben terms “bare life” (zoe), meaning existence stripped down to mere biological survival, stripped of political rights and legal protections. Historically, homo sacer represented a person who, due to certain transgressions, was expelled from the political and legal community. While this individual could legally be killed without consequence, they were not necessarily sentenced to death; rather, they lived in a perpetual state of exposure and vulnerability to the sovereign’s absolute power. Far from being a historical curiosity, Agamben demonstrates how this mechanism of exclusion underpins contemporary governance. Through meticulous genealogical analysis, he traces how the production of bare life has evolved from an extraordinary measure to an increasingly normalized technique of state power.

Agamben argues that sovereign power thus isn’t solely defined by the enforcement of law but, crucially, by its suspension. This power to declare a state of exception, suspending normal legal protections, becomes more than just a temporary measure— instead becoming a pervasive norm that blurs the line between democracy and authoritarianism. The sovereign’s capacity to create and maintain this state of exception, in these scenarios, undermines the very foundations of democratic principles.

Agamben's examination of the state of exception is particularly illuminating for ISSE's mission. He shows how emergency powers, initially conceived as temporary suspensions of constitutional order, increasingly function in the modern era as permanent governance tools. Drawing on historical examples from the French Revolution through Nazi Germany to contemporary detention camps, Agamben reveals how states of exception create "zones of indistinction" where law and violence merge, becoming indistinguishable. Agamben demonstrates that this is not an aberration but a latent feature of legal systems, activated intentionally to bypass democratic accountability. In these instances, individuals may exist in a legal limbo: neither protected by normal judicial processes nor formally charged under established legal frameworks.

What makes Agamben's analysis so vital for contemporary scholars is his recognition that the state of exception represents not a regression to pre-modern barbarity but rather the fulfillment of modern sovereignty's inner logic. By examining how democratic states increasingly rely on exceptional measures to manage populations, particularly refugees, detainees, and other marginalized groups, Agamben exposes the uncomfortable continuities between democratic and authoritarian governance in the modern era. The concentration camp, in his analysis, emerges not as an aberration but, more forcefully, as the "hidden paradigm of the political space of modernity."

For ISSE's work on executive overreach and democratic erosion, Homo Sacer provides an essential theoretical foundation. Agamben's insights help us recognize how seemingly temporary security measures following crises (from 9/11 to the COVID-19 pandemic) can calcify into permanent expansions of state power. His critical framework enables researchers and advocates to identify the subtle mechanisms through which states normalize exceptional governance, often with the public's consent. By illuminating how democratic institutions can be hollowed out while maintaining a constitutional façade, Agamben offers crucial tools for thinking through how to defend democratic norms against the incremental expansion of abusive emergency powers.

The enduring value of Homo Sacer lies in its unflinching confrontation with sovereignty's dark underside. Agamben’s rigorous philosophical inquiry offers a profound conceptual framework for understanding the insidious ways in which democratic norms are eroded under the guise of necessity. His work compels us to critically examine the contemporary instances where states invoke emergency powers to justify the violation of fundamental rights and the expansion of unchecked executive authority. As ISSE continues its vital work documenting misuse and abuse of states of exception worldwide, Agamben's paradigm-shifting analysis remains indispensable for understanding how democratic ideals can be subverted through the very legal mechanisms designed to preserve them.

For additional resources to further explore Agamben’s Homo Sacer, you can find an additional book review from the Law and Society Students’ Journal, an open access annual students’ journal, here. Additionally, we recommend the two-part video series (Part 1) (Part 2) by Dan Krier, from Iowa State University’s Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, examining the book.