Creon's Secretaries: The Conceptual Foundations of the Procedural State
My dissertation examines the rise and development of the procedural state and the displacement, metaphorically speaking, of Creon (the sovereign) by his secretaries (judicial and bureaucratic institutions). This development marks not a shift of power, but a displacement of the decision-making locus from the will of individuals towards procedures. The dissertation examines three moments. The first moment anatomizes the historical forces and conceptual commitments that undergird the rise of the procedural state. The second moment examines the normative roots of opposition to the procedural state and the conceptual vocabulary, still with us, employed to resist the expansion of procedural elements to the state and society. The third moment explores attempts to overcome the antagonism between proponents and opponents of the procedural state and reconcile their concerns.
Preferred citation: Roger Michalski,
Creon's Secretaries: The Conceptual Foundations of the Procedural State
, Doctoral Dissertation, University of Michigan
(2009).
