Abstract
Brown seeks to evaluate whether the use of emergency powers necessitate a transition towards more authoritarian norms. He does so by engaging with the thought of Schmitt in order to establish an analytical distinction between ‘sovereign’ and ‘commissary’ dictatorships before applying this framework to consider the use of emergency powers in the current pandemic, focusing in particular on China and Hungary. Brown ultimately argues that the use of emergency powers does not necessitate a shift towards authoritarian norms, arguing instead that this depends on the political context which transcends the crisis. Nonetheless, this does not mean vigilance is not needed to make sure such transition does not happen.
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Brown, R. (2022). Emergency Powers and Authoritarian Shift. In: COVID-19 and International Political Theory. International Political Theory. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91952-8_2
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