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Authors: Antonio Negri, Professor Michael Hardt
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unilaterally by the United States, which
charges itselfwith the primary task and then subsequently asks its
allies to set in motion a process ofarmed containment and/or
repression ofthe current enemy ofEmpire. These enemies are
most often called terrorist, a crude conceptual and terminological
reduction that is rooted in a police mentality.
The relationship between prevention and repression is particu-
larly clear in the case ofintervention in ethnic conflicts. The conflicts
among ethnic groups and the consequent reenforcement of new
and/or resurrected ethnic identities effectively disrupt the old aggre-
gations based on national political lines. These conflicts make the
fabric of global relations more fluid and, by affirming new identities
and new localities, present a more malleable material for control.
In such cases repression can be articulated through preventive action
that constructs new relationships (which will eventually be consoli-
dated in peace but only after new wars) and new territorial and
political formations that are functional (or rather more functional,
better adaptable) to the constitution ofEmpire.33 A second example
ofrepression prepared through preventive action is the campaigns
against corporative business groups or ‘‘mafias,’’ particularly those
involved in the drug trade. The actual repression ofthese groups
may not be as important as criminalizing their activities and manag-
ing social alarm at their very existence in order to facilitate their
control. Even though controlling ‘‘ethnic terrorists’’ and ‘‘drug ma-
fias’’ may represent the center ofthe wide spectrum ofpolice control
on the part ofthe imperial power, this activity is nonetheless normal,
that is, systemic. The ‘‘just war’’ is effectively supported by the
‘‘moral police,’’ just as the validity ofimperial right and its legitimate
38
T H E P O L I T I C A L C O N S T I T U T I O N O F T H E P R E S E N T
functioning is supported by the necessary and continuous exercise
ofpolice power.
It is clear that international or supranational courts are con-
strained to follow this lead. Armies and police anticipate the courts
and preconstitute the rules ofjustice that the courts must then apply.
The intensity ofthe moral principles to which the construction of
the new world order is entrusted cannot change the fact that this
is really an inversion ofthe conventional order ofconstitutional
logic. The active parties supporting the imperial constitution are
confident that when the construction ofEmpire is sufficiently ad-
vanced, the courts will be able to assume their leading role in the
definition ofjustice. For now, however, although international
courts do not have much power, public displays oftheir activities
are still very important. Eventually a new judicial function must be
formed that is adequate to the constitution of Empire. Courts will
have to be transformed gradually from an organ that simply decrees
sentences against the vanquished to a judicial body or system of
bodies that dictate and sanction the interrelation among the moral
order, the exercise ofpolice action, and the mechanism legitimating
imperial sovereignty.34
This kind ofcontinual intervention, then, which is both moral
and military, is really the logical form of the exercise of force that
follows from a paradigm of legitimation based on a state of perma-
nent exception and police action. Interventions are always excep-
tional even though they arise continually; they take the form of
police actions because they are aimed at maintaining an internal
order. In this way intervention is an effective mechanism that
through police deployments contributes directly to the construction
ofthe moral, normative, and institutional order ofEmpire.
Royal Prerogatives
What were traditionally called the royal prerogatives ofsovereignty
seem in effect to be repeated and even substantially renewed
charges itselfwith the primary task and then subsequently asks its
allies to set in motion a process ofarmed containment and/or
repression ofthe current enemy ofEmpire. These enemies are
most often called terrorist, a crude conceptual and terminological
reduction that is rooted in a police mentality.
The relationship between prevention and repression is particu-
larly clear in the case ofintervention in ethnic conflicts. The conflicts
among ethnic groups and the consequent reenforcement of new
and/or resurrected ethnic identities effectively disrupt the old aggre-
gations based on national political lines. These conflicts make the
fabric of global relations more fluid and, by affirming new identities
and new localities, present a more malleable material for control.
In such cases repression can be articulated through preventive action
that constructs new relationships (which will eventually be consoli-
dated in peace but only after new wars) and new territorial and
political formations that are functional (or rather more functional,
better adaptable) to the constitution ofEmpire.33 A second example
ofrepression prepared through preventive action is the campaigns
against corporative business groups or ‘‘mafias,’’ particularly those
involved in the drug trade. The actual repression ofthese groups
may not be as important as criminalizing their activities and manag-
ing social alarm at their very existence in order to facilitate their
control. Even though controlling ‘‘ethnic terrorists’’ and ‘‘drug ma-
fias’’ may represent the center ofthe wide spectrum ofpolice control
on the part ofthe imperial power, this activity is nonetheless normal,
that is, systemic. The ‘‘just war’’ is effectively supported by the
‘‘moral police,’’ just as the validity ofimperial right and its legitimate
38
T H E P O L I T I C A L C O N S T I T U T I O N O F T H E P R E S E N T
functioning is supported by the necessary and continuous exercise
ofpolice power.
It is clear that international or supranational courts are con-
strained to follow this lead. Armies and police anticipate the courts
and preconstitute the rules ofjustice that the courts must then apply.
The intensity ofthe moral principles to which the construction of
the new world order is entrusted cannot change the fact that this
is really an inversion ofthe conventional order ofconstitutional
logic. The active parties supporting the imperial constitution are
confident that when the construction ofEmpire is sufficiently ad-
vanced, the courts will be able to assume their leading role in the
definition ofjustice. For now, however, although international
courts do not have much power, public displays oftheir activities
are still very important. Eventually a new judicial function must be
formed that is adequate to the constitution of Empire. Courts will
have to be transformed gradually from an organ that simply decrees
sentences against the vanquished to a judicial body or system of
bodies that dictate and sanction the interrelation among the moral
order, the exercise ofpolice action, and the mechanism legitimating
imperial sovereignty.34
This kind ofcontinual intervention, then, which is both moral
and military, is really the logical form of the exercise of force that
follows from a paradigm of legitimation based on a state of perma-
nent exception and police action. Interventions are always excep-
tional even though they arise continually; they take the form of
police actions because they are aimed at maintaining an internal
order. In this way intervention is an effective mechanism that
through police deployments contributes directly to the construction
ofthe moral, normative, and institutional order ofEmpire.
Royal Prerogatives
What were traditionally called the royal prerogatives ofsovereignty
seem in effect to be repeated and even substantially renewed
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