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Abstract
This article is focused on the analysis of paragraphs 10 and 11 of Walter Benjamin's "Toward the Critique of Violence." The article focuses on two sets of fundamental claims: those addressing the function of the police within the legal order of the state and those addressing what Benjamin calls the "politics of pure means." Benjamin considers both the police and the politics of pure means as belonging to "the realm of means," but they represent two alternative configurations of politics. The police state exemplifies the art of government when "the state of emergency is the rule," that is, when the constantly reproduced fear of violence performs a disciplinary function. By contrast, the politics of pure means names the possibility of a politicization of human beings living together on the basis of subjective dispositions other than fear (which traditionally was thought to justify the creation of the legal order of the state).

Questo articolo è incentrato sull'analisi dei paragrafi 10 e 11 di Sulla critica della violenzadi Walter Benjamin. In particolare, si sofferma su due aspetti: la funzione della polizia nell'ordinamento giuridico dello Stato e la "politica dei mezzi puri". Benjamin considera sia la polizia che la politica dei mezzi puri come appartenenti al "regno dei mezzi", ma rappresentano due configurazioni alternative di politica. Lo Stato di polizia esemplifica l'arte di governo che si produce quando "lo stato di eccezione è la regola", cioè quando la paura della violenza costantemente riprodotta svolge una funzione disciplinare. Al contrario, la politica dei mezzi puri indica la possibilità di una politicizzazione degli esseri umani sulla scorta di disposizioni soggettive diverse se non alternative a quella paura che la tradizionecontrattualista della politica moderna ha assunto come movente fondamentale pergiustificare l'istituzione dell'ordinamento giuridico dello Stato.

"This book marks a missed encounter between two of the most influential Marxists thinkers of our age, Walter Benjamin, and Antonio Gramsci, studied here for the first-time side by side. Benjamin and Gramsci were contemporaries, whose births and deaths took place within a few years of each other in Western Europe in the first half of the 20th century. Two Marxists sui generis, they radically changed Marxism's themes and vocabulary, profoundly influencing the most significant analyses and debates. At a time in which Marxism was considered to be outdated and in crisis, both Gramsci's and Benjamin's thought provided resources for its renewal: particularly in post-colonial studies for Gramsci and in new media studies for Benjamin. Both were victims of fascism, on the threshold of the catastrophe of the Second World War. These two philosophers' posthumous fortune depended on the transmission of their thought, which was first entrusted to friends and comrades, and then to entire generations of scholars from a wide range of disciplines. Editors, Dario Gentili, Elettra Stimilli, Gabriele Guerra explore with leading voices on Benjamin and Gramsci the most relevant and topical issues today. An indispensable new perspective in Marxism for students and researchers alike"--