Sovereignty, policing and legitimacy
Minorities and the state of exception in a democratic polity
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2402917 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Vikash Singh (0000-0002-5131-5753, Montclair State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publication date | 2025-07-12 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ethnography (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1466-1381 • E-ISSN: 1741-2714 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/14661381251359479 |
| OpenAlex | W4412364844 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 36 |
This article describes and conceptualizes the experiences of police actions in the performance of a politics of exception in a democratic polity. In conversation with Carl Schmitt's authoritarian conservative understanding of 'the people', the narrative dwells on the role of the police in the assertions of sovereign legitimacy under a right-wing government. Surplus targeting and violence against a minority is deemed legitimate based on the will of the people evidently ratified through democratic exercises. Drawing on interviews and ethnographic data, the article shows the everyday abjection and scapegoating of minorities as constitutive of a democratized politics of exception. While emphasizing the descriptive significance of Giorgio Agamben's idea of the homo sacer , the article calls for greater attention to right-wing perceptions of legitimacy, which may diverge from normative interpretations based on Max Weber's work
Criminology · Democracy · Democratic legitimacy · Legitimacy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Polity · Sociology · Sovereignty · State (computer science · State of exception · Global Security and Public Health · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · South Asian Studies and Conflicts
Majoritarian State
Homo hierarchicus
Votes and Violence
Fear and Violence as Organizational Strategies
Organizing sovereign power
The organisation of military violence in the 21st century
Dirty Anthropology
The Anthropology of Police
Permission to Shoot
Just Violence
Political Theology
Reproducing Regimes of Impunity
Homo Sacer
Patronage vs. ideology in Indian politics
When crime pays
The Masculinist Security State and Anti-terror Law Regimes in India
Pogrom in Gujarat
Caste, Race, and Abjection
The origins of totalitarianism
Status of Employment and Occupations of Muslims in India
The Irregular Migrant as Homo Sacer
The ethics of des seva
From Max Weber
God's Country in Black and Blue
Max Weber and Carl Schmitt on Legitimate Domination
Myths of meritocracy
| Highly cited | No |
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