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The Suspension of Power in German Health Politics: Rising Demands and the Function of Suspension

In: Hybrid Forms of Governance

Author

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  • Anna Henkel

    (University of Bielefeld)

Abstract

The suspension of power, and with it the emergence of hybrids, is a relatively recent issue, both conceptually and empirically. The concept of suspension is employed when observing cases where political institutions or other organizations decide to renounce their power as a way of exercising it. A hybrid is an identity that identifies itself with its constitutive other (or several others) without being this other. The suspension of power must not be confused with the strategic pretension of an identity to be another, however. A king who disguises himself as a peasant in order to rule the people more effectively does not suspend his power and therefore cannot be observed as a hybrid. The king remains the sovereign and only pretends to be another. Hybrids, in contrast to this classical strategy of pretension, remain themselves. They neither become nor pretend to become the other. Hybrid political institutions and social organizations cannot be held responsible for potentially unappreciated outcomes of power exertion. Decision results cannot be traced back to this specific identity in any clear way. The hybrid identity does not become the other. But it communicates in a way that dissolves its specific addressability.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Henkel, 2012. "The Suspension of Power in German Health Politics: Rising Demands and the Function of Suspension," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Niels Åkerstrøm Andersen & Inger-Johanne Sand (ed.), Hybrid Forms of Governance, chapter 5, pages 85-101, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-36300-7_6
    DOI: 10.1057/9780230363007_6
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