(Dis)encounters between Giorgio Agamben and Michel Foucault: What remains of the rule of law in Brazil

Abstract

This article explores the conceptual and theoretical convergences and divergences in some discussions of Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben, emphasizing the notions of state of exception and biopolitics. It is argued that the analytical framework from the authors lets understand why, in the current Brazilian society, increasingly, democracy has become a mechanism of biopolitical management that has, inside, the adoption of typical state of exception measures and devices, such as authorizing the killing of suspects and enemies and suspension of constitutional rights and guarantees. The empirical basis for theoretical discussion is the recent experience of military intervention in the Rio de Janeiro’s public safety, with your exception measures, based on territory occupation, social militarization, access control and in the impunity in the face of violations. Thus, the intervention is a laboratory of state of exception permanent that gradually is settling in Brazilian society.