Carl Schmitt and Hans Morgenthau: Realism and Beyond

This paper traces the substantive overlap, or “hidden dialogue,” between Carl Schmitt and Hans Morgenthau in their observations about American liberalism and American foreign policy. A proper understanding of that overlap is indispensable if we are to make sense of Morgenthau’s idiosyncratic brand of Realism since Morgenthau unfortunately reproduces many weaknesses in Schmitt’s arguments when he borrows from Schmitt’s reflections. Given the recent revival of utopian models of transnational political and legal order, and the resurgence of Realist theory, this paper advocates meeting Morgenthau’s intellectual challenge despite his Schmittian intellectual baggage

Decisionism and Legal Indeterminacy: The Case of Carl Schmitt

Also CSST Working Paper #116.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/51307/1/543.pd

Entre o radicalismo e a resignação: teoria democrática em Direito e democracia, de Habermas

Resumo No artigo, William Scheuerman examina a grande contribuição de Habermas à teoria democrática, o livro publicado no Brasil como Direito e democracia. Ele sinaliza a virada “realista” e conservadora da obra, que nega o compromisso democrático radical que marcava seu pensamento anterior. Em particular, Habermas incorpora a sociologia política de Bernhard Peters. Com isso, a distinção crítica entre públicos fortes e públicos fracos, que Habermas busca trazer da leitura de Nancy Fraser sobre o conceito de esfera pública, une-se à ideia de uma distinção funcional do sistema político, em que o centro deve tomar as decisões e a influência da sociedade civil é sempre indireta e mediada. Palavras-chave: democracia deliberativa, sistema político, Habermas, Bernhard Peters   Abstract In this article, William Scheuerman examines Habermas’s greatest contribution to democratic theory, the book published in English as Between facts and norms. It signals a “realistic” and conservative turn in his work, which denies the radical democratic commitment that marked his previous thought. In particular, Habermas incorporates Bernhard Peters’s political sociology. Thus, the critical distinction between strong and weak public audiences, which Habermas brings from Nancy Fraser’s reading on the concept of public sphere, joins the idea of a functional distinction of the political system, in which the center must make decisions. The influence of civil society is, in this case, always indirect and mediated. Keywords: deliberative democracy, political system, Habermas, Bernhard Peter

Governing terrorism through risk: Taking precautions, (un)knowing the future

The events of 9/11 appeared to make good on Ulrich Beck's claim that we are now living in a (global) risk society. Examining what it means to ‘govern through risk’, this article departs from Beck's thesis of risk society and its appropriation in security studies. Arguing that the risk society thesis problematically views risk within a macro-sociological narrative of modernity, this article shows, based on a Foucauldian account of governmentality, that governing terrorism through risk involves a permanent adjustment of traditional forms of risk management in light of the double infinity of catastrophic consequences and the incalculability of the risk of terrorism. Deploying the Foucauldian notion of ‘dispositif’, this article explores precautionary risk and risk analysis as conceptual tools that can shed light on the heterogeneous practices that are defined as the ‘war on terror’