ABSTRACT
In this penultimate chapter of my study of governance, I approach the liminal edges of normal politics where sanction-conscious, interest-driven, rule-abiding behaviour melds into the seemingly inexplicable behaviour of rational actors bent on their own destruction and that of their adversaries. Violent political behaviour in forms as diverse as the lone assassin stalking his prey, violent mobs, mass rape, inter-community conflict and terrorism form the empirical backbone of this chapter. The recrudescence of this form of political action, which has given the twenty-first century some resemblance to the politics of the heroic era of nation building, has once again confronted us with political action by well-organised, rational actors whose logic goes beyond the simple explanation of instrumental rationality. If death is the end of all felicity, then how can action that is tied to the ultimate likelihood of the annihilation of the actor be justified in terms of the logic of cost-benefit calculations that go into the making of institutions?
