A state of exception: The concept of the political in northern Ireland¹

This paper was originally given as the John Whyte Memorial Lecture at Queen's University, Belfast in 1996.

Abstract

This paper examines the intractability of the Northern Ireland problem in terms of the central idea of Carl Schmitt's The Concept of the Political, namely that the ‘distinction to which political actions and motives can be reduced is that between friend and enemy’. It is not proposed that the utility of this idea involves an assumption of interminable violent conflict, merely that it suggests limits within which policy will be confined. The paper also examines those experiences of life in Northern Ireland which qualify the strict appropriateness of Schmitt's concept.

Notes

This paper was originally given as the John Whyte Memorial Lecture at Queen's University, Belfast in 1996.