This paper addresses the “right to die” through the lens of Derrida’s The Beast and the Sovereign, Volume One. Specifically focusing on the case of Tony Nicklinson v. Ministry of Justice, 2012, the essay posits two things. First, Derrida’s insight helps us understand how a “fear of death” is a fundamental performative feature of sovereignty politics. Second, in order to maintain its performativ...

The debate on the alleged end of sovereignty is reigning everywhere. The proponents of the end of sovereignty thesis argue that the sovereign state—the governments with an absolute right to control their own territory and independence of all other states in the international arena, that is to say having no superior authority internally and externally—is no more. Indeed, non-governmental organis...

This article offers a substantive understanding of the variegation of capitalism, in an attempt to move beyond the current impasse in the mainstream varieties-of-capitalism approach. Drawing on existing conceptualizations of capitalism-society relationships, as well as on Agamben’s reconceptualization of the Foucaldian notion of ‘dispositif’, the article identifies the ontological ‘dispositifs’...

Consider a group that must select one alternative from a set of three or more alternatives. Each member casts a ballot that the voting procedure counts. For a given alternative X, let two ballot profiles C and D have the property that if a member ranks alternative x above alternative y within C, then he also ranks x above that y within D. Strong positive association requires that if the voting ...

The Christian Church has traditionally held that the inspiration of Holy Scripture is verbal, plenary, and confluent. But such an affirmation may seem to be incoherent. For if Scripture is the product of both divine and human free agency, then it seems impossible that God should have sufficient control of the various authors of Scripture so as to produce a Word that is verbally and plenarily hi...

In this chapter, I will explore two competing approaches to analysis of national currency emission. I will call one the seigniorage view, to be contrasted with what I will call the sovereignty view. Before proceeding, let me say that I am not interested in presenting either a historical analysis, nor will I pursue the etymology of these terms. I will first briefly define the terms as I will be ...