Open AccessŽižek, Agamben and the Idea of Democratic Biopolitics
Author(s) -
Shehzad Ali
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
review of human rights
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2520-7032
pISSN - 2520-7024
DOI - 10.35994/rhr.v6i1.157
Subject(s) - biopower , democracy , pandemic , covid-19 , sociology , epistemology , state of exception , political science , aesthetics , philosophy , law , politics , medicine , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty) , pathology , virology , outbreak
Following the debate between Giorgio Agamben and Slavoj Žižek in response to the pandemic, this essay explores that the concept of ‘democratic biopolitics’ is a viable alternative to the concept of ‘populist biopolitics’. The concept problematizes the dominant intellectual sense of the pandemic (whether it is a rupture or event) by rendering that ‘heeding to the aspirations of ordinary citizens’ is the key to understandiing the pandemic. It also double-downs on the idea of Sotiris and Schubert that a community based democratic response to the pandemic should be pursued.