Banning them, securing us? explores the proscribing – or banning – of terrorist organisations within the United Kingdom across a period of twenty years. The process of banning specific organisations, Jarvis and Legrand argue, is as much a ritualistic performance of liberal democracy as it is a technique for increasing national security from the threat posed by terrorism. Characterised by a repetitive script, an established cast of characters and a predictable outcome, this ritual provides an important contribution to the construction of Britain as a liberal, democratic, moderate space. It does so, paradoxically, through extending the reach of a power that has limited political or judicial oversight and considerable implications for rights, freedoms and political participation.
Offering a discursive analysis of all British Parliamentary debates on the banning of terrorist organisations since the introduction of Britain’s current proscription regime in 2000, this book provides the first sustained treatment of this counter-terrorism power in the United Kingdom and beyond.
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Contents
Introduction: Banning them
Proscription in the United Kingdom: A Tough but Necessary Measure?
Proscription in Context: Historical, Geographical and Political Dynamics
Theorising Proscription: Discourse, Argumentation, and Ritual
Debating Proscription: Sources of Parliamentary Support and Opposition
Questioning proscription: Holding Government to Account?
Proscription and Identity: Constructions of Self and Other in Parliamentary Debate
The Ritual of Proscription: Reproducing Liberal Democracy
Conclusion: Securing us?
References
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Michael Lister is Reader in Politics at Oxford Brookes University