Stasis Before the State

Dimitris Vardoulakis is Associate Professor and deputy chair of philosophy at Western Sydney University.

"Against the naive utopias of radical democracy and of liberal democracy alike, Vardoulakis presents us with 'agonistic democracy'-a non-teleological and paradoxical political practice that constitutes the condition of possibility as well as the only real alternative to sovereign power. Stasis before the State is a truly remarkable and memorable book." -- -Cesare Casarino University of Minnesota, Cultural Critique Senior Editor "A beautiful and lyrical book. Over the course of nine theses Vardoulakis contends with some of the central issues of contemporary politics and shows that we need not fear conflict but should embrace it as a critical aspect of democratic life." -- -James Martel San Francisco State University

• Preamble, or On Agonistic Monism Thesis 1 Constituent power forges the distinction between democracy and sovereignty Thesis 2 Sovereign violence is always justified violence Thesis 3 The different ways in which violence is justified delineate different forms of sovereignty Intermezzo 1 Sovereignty and the Refugee Thesis 4 Judgment is constitutive of democracy Thesis 5 Judgement establishes the agonistic relation between democracy and sovereignty by dejusti-fying violence Thesis 6 Democratic judgment shows the imbrication of the ontological, the political and the ethical Intermezzo 2 The Refugee and Resistance to Sovereign Power Thesis 7 Stasis indicates that judgment is the condition of the possibility of the law, or that democracy is the form of the constitution Thesis 8 Stasis, or agonistic monism, names the forms of the relation between democracy and sover-eignty Thesis 9 Stasis underlies all political praxis Vardoulak