Decisiveness and Fear of Disorder, Political Decision-Making in Times of Crisis

Author

Rogenhofer; Julius Maximilian

Year

2024

Publisher

University of Michigan Press

Language

English

Pages

ISBN

978-0-47290-339-9

Link

Last Update

29-May-2026

Keywords

Political Science ; Public Policy & Administration ; European Studies ; Law

Description

This book studies how representatives use fear of disorder to shape political outcomes. Fear of disorder imagines the breakdown of political relations within a state and the loss of authority of its prevailing institutions. This fear of disintegration resembles Thomas Hobbes’s pessimistic interpretation of the state of nature, descent into which remains a perpetual possibility and one that representatives must address and counteract. While the onset of an anarchical “warre of every man against his neighbour” seems a remote prospect in ordinary democratic politics (Hobbes [1651] 1996, 171), fear of disintegration knows various guises. Crime, violence, and public protests all...