Reverse Engineering the Polity
Reverse Engineering the Polity
This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the conditions of sovereignty. It argues that sovereignty requires the continual reproduction of (at least) three conditions: (1) establishment of a coherent public defined by relations of inclusion and exclusion that are materially marked and regulated; (2) definition of a sovereign figure (whether individual or corporate), cut away from the community by instruments of social and martial violence; and (3) manufacture of an apparatus capable of formalizing governance by transforming the polity itself into an object of desire, of care, and of devotion. It then goes on to consider the concept of the political machine, the object matter of sovereignty, and the Caucasus. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
Keywords: political sovereignty, political machine, object matter, politics, Caucasus
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