Žižek, Agamben and the Idea of Democratic Biopolitics

Following the debate between Giorgio Agamben and Slavoj Žižek in response to the pandemic, this essay explores that the concept of ‘democratic biopolitics’ is a viable alternative to the concept of ‘populist biopolitics’. The concept problematizes the dominant intellectual sense of the pandemic (whether it is a rupture or event) by rendering that ‘heeding to the aspirations of ordinary citizens’ is the key to understandiing the pandemic. It also double-downs on the idea of Sotiris and Schubert that a community based democratic response to the pandemic should be pursued.