(Dis)agreements between Giorgio Agamben and Michel Foucault: What remains of the rule of law in Brazil

This article explores the conceptual and theoretical convergences and divergences in some works by Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben, emphasizing the notions of state of exception and biopolitics. It is argued that the analytical framework discussed by the authors allows us to grasp why, in the current Brazilian society, democracy has increasingly become a mechanism of biopolitical management that has at its core the adoption of typical measures and devices of the state of exception, such as authorized killing of suspects and enemies and suspended constitutional rights and guarantees. The empirical basis for theoretical discussion is the recent experience of military intervention in Rio de Janeiro’s public security, with exception measures of its own, based on territory occupation, social militarization, access control, and impunity in the face of violations. Thus, intervention is a laboratory for a permanent state of exception that has been gradually establishing in Brazilian society.