Security and Limits to Democracy : A Critical Study of the Danish Ghetto Package

Abstract: This thesis departs from two arguments articulated by Jef Huysmans. First, security, as it is increasingly dispersed and part of every-day decision-making, undermines democracy in previously unprecedented ways. In order to under- stand security, scholars must look beyond insecurities framed as existential threats. They must equally adopt a fractional approach to democracy. Limits to democracy are increasingly found beyond democratic institutional frames of reference. In an empirical endeavour, this thesis builds on theoretical concepts by Huysmans and others in examining the Danish ghetto package as a cluster of securitising techniques. I make the argument that as the ghetto package entails more dispersed securitising techniques, it enacts limits to democracy.