Abstract

This article examines Gillian Rose's understanding of the relationship between universality and diremption in the capitalist economy and the capitalist state. Adopting Rose's triadic discussion in The Broken Middle, I contrast her thought with Hannah Arendt and Rosa Luxemburg. Rose's investigation of the ‘political diremption’ of the modern state is conducted via a critical appraisal of Arendt's oeuvre. While Arendt is one of the most celebrated thinkers today, Rose's analysis has been virtually ignored. Strikingly, Rose makes a novel distinction between the problematic of diremption between economy and state in Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism and the idealism of The Human Condition. Rose argues that Arendt's shift is ahistorical and betrays the radical potential of her best insights. This critique helps assess current debates over universal human rights and the relation between the capitalist economy and nation-state. Identifying the exclusions of citizenship, Rose advances a politics of universal freedom from ‘the broken middle’.