The politics of exception in Canada and the U.S.
LE3 .A278 2016
2016
Jackson, Emily Lindsay
Acadia University
Bachelor of Arts
Honours
Political Science
Politics
This thesis investigates the politics of exception in an effort to understand recent legislation which has been enacted by both the Canadian and American governments. This legislation is aimed at reducing terrorism. This thesis will define the politics of exception by drawing on the theories of Carl Schmitt, Giorgio Agamben, Claudia Aradau and Jef Huysmans in addition to a number of notable scholars and theorists. My work will then examine three major aspects of the politics of exception that the Canadian, and to a lesser extent the U.S., governments have implemented: The use of sovereignty and the survival of the state as a justification for exceptional politics; the use of emergency measures in non-emergency times; and the resulting loss of legitimacy in governments. These problematic aspects of the politics of exception will then be applied to case studies, including Bill C-51 and the USA PATRIOT Act in order to demonstrate the ways in which these practices are harmful to the population. It is the goal of this work to answer the following question: Are the politics of exception beneficial to citizens? I answer this question by providing support for the notion that the politics of exception are harmful to ordinary people in both Canada and the United States.
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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:1448