Institutionalized Constraint of Emergency Power: From Schmitt’s “state of Exception” Theory to Modern Governance Mechanisms

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-609-3_49How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Emergency power; State of exception; Carl Schmitt; Institutional constraints; Crisis governance

Abstract

This article studies the institutional constraints of emergency power in modern governance, focusing on the limitations of Carl Schmitt’s theory of the exceptional state. Although Schmitt’s decision-making principle emphasizes the necessity of political authority in crises, its applicability to providing institutionalized constraints in modern governance remains limited rather than absent. For this reason, this study has developed a three-dimensional analysis framework comprising announcement standards, time limits, and supervision mechanisms. This paper uses literature analysis, institutional analysis, and case study methods to systematically evaluate whether Schmitt’s theory can meet these institutional requirements. Research results show that Schmitt’s theory cannot produce institutional constraints structurally, because it places the ultimate authority in the subjective decision-making of sovereignty, not in rules-based procedures. In contrast, the modern governance system tries to regulate emergency power through legal procedures, time-limited mechanisms, and multi-layered oversight structures. However, the case study of China’s response to COVID-19 shows that although administrative arrangements can partially limit emergency power, they cannot eliminate the risk of expansion due to the information asymmetry and urgency inherent in crises. The article concludes that effective crisis governance lies in embedding it in the institutional framework of the system. The institutionalization of emergency power remains a continuous balance between efficiency and the rule of law, rather than a problem that can be clearly addressed.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Xinchi Liu
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/04
TI  - Institutionalized Constraint of Emergency Power: From Schmitt’s “state of Exception” Theory to Modern Governance Mechanisms
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 3rd International Conference on Public Relations and Media Communication (PRMC 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 447
EP  - 457
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-609-3_49
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-609-3_49
ID  - Liu2026
ER  -