Bureaucracy in America : reading Ryan’s budget with Agamben

The article analyses Paul Ryan’s 2013 budget proposal in conjunction with Giorgio Agamben’s The Kingdom and the Glory (2011). Agamben contends that early Christian attempts to differentiate between “the being of God and his activity” continue to structure politics today. Drawing on Agamben’s reading...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Trigg, Christopher
Other Authors: School of Humanities
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/80908
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/48159
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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Summary:The article analyses Paul Ryan’s 2013 budget proposal in conjunction with Giorgio Agamben’s The Kingdom and the Glory (2011). Agamben contends that early Christian attempts to differentiate between “the being of God and his activity” continue to structure politics today. Drawing on Agamben’s reading of Thomas Aquinas, I demonstrate how the argument of Ryan’s budget is not only predicated on fiscal responsibility and a moral objection to “big government” but also on a politico-theological conviction that bureaucracies of men and women should not intervene in matters best left to a free market guided by divine providence.