The permanent state of exception predates Nazism in colonial formations.

Evidence

For an elaboration of “principles of imperial policing,” see Gwynn (1934). Since its establishment over 50 years ago, the state of Israel has had in effect a legal state of emergency designed for the most part to deal with its internal “Arab question,” legislation that enables “the Israeli cabinet to supersede the legislative process” (New York Times, April 7, 2000: A10). Balibar understands this to begin with Nazism (Balibar, 1990:287). I am suggesting that it was initiated at least with colonial formations in the nineteenth centurv. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1753

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that the sovereign state of exception originates in nineteenth-century colonial policing rather than in Nazism reframes the genealogy of emergency powers — shifts the origin point of a concept central to political theory.
• XREF: Directly engages Agamben’s state of exception thesis, which Balibar roots in Nazism; the colonial-prehistory claim revises Agamben’s genealogy. — connects to: The permanently retained state of exception expresses settlers’ felt siege even when dominant. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 2095
• SEED: Article angle: tracing the state of emergency from colonial policing doctrine (Lugard, Gwynn) to Israel’s permanent legal emergency — how settler-colonial infrastructure persists as the template for modern security states.