دولتپژوهی (Oct 2022)
Power and Involuntary State of Exception in Iran (Foundation and Conditions of Possibility)
Abstract
The author considers Schmitt's and Agamben's state of exception as "Voluntary State of Exception" and propose a new type of state of exception (entitled "Involuntary State of Exception"). Then he explains the foundation and possibility of this second type of state of exception in Iranian society. The author's main argument is that by the gradual combination of the four inevitable super-events (including "general crisis of capital accumulation", "expansion of digital technology in everyday life", "increasing class displacement" and "generational transformation of the dominant traditional power elites"), Iranian society is on the path of a triple great imbalance and an all-out historical discontinuity and ultimately, entering an involuntary state of exception. The author calls this potential state of exception as "Fundamental Question of Iran" and determines the specific process of its occurrence in four stages including "early formation", "great transformation", "liminality", and "hour of involuntary state of exception".According to the author, with the beginning of the "liminality stage" and especially with the oncoming of the "hour of involuntary state of exception" in Iranian society, the existential condition of power elites and social forces transform and everyone feel that they have entered a new historical stage. Therefore, excitement, anxiety and conflict grow in the society. From his point of view, although Iranian involuntary state of exception is not an ultimate and constant situation and there is a possibility of rethinking; However, both power elites and social forces are exposed to some specific great paradoxes.
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