Illocutionary Logic and Strands of Securitisation – Applying the Theory of Securitisation to the Study of Non-Democratic Political Orders

: Juha A. Vuori

Publisher: Sage

: 2008

European Journal of International Relations

: EJIR

: 14

: 1

: 65

: 99

: 35

: 1354-0661

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066107087767

Convincing research programmes often use a variety of data from cases in different contexts; in order to reach a wider understanding, the models and hypothesis of securitization studies have to be applied to broad groups of cases. The research programme of securitization studies is formed around the leading idea of securitization being a social process achieved through speech acts. I argue that by explicating the concept of securitization through illocutionary logic, it can be utilized to study security politics in non-democratic contexts in addition to the favoured liberal democratic one, where the majority of empirical analysis has been conducted so far. In addition, I present
clarifications to the concepts of ‘audiences’ and ‘special politics’ used in the theory. The theoretical discussion is illustrated with examples from the Chinese political system.