Constituent Power: A Discourse‐Theoretical Solution to the Conflict between Openness and Containment

Patberg, Markus

doi:10.1111/1467-8675.12253

Cited by 20 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 11 publications

(12 reference statements)

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“…Nonetheless, Habermas now describes the EU as “sharing constituting power between EU citizens and European peoples”; much of his recent defense of it revolves around an attempt to make sense of its mixed pouvoir constituant (Habermas, 2012: 28). His efforts have recently inspired others—most impressively, the Hamburg political theorists Peter Niesen and Markus Patberg—to rethink the idea of constituent power in a more “global” direction (Niesen, 2017, 2019; Patberg, 2014, 2017, 2019; see also Lang, 2017). As Niesen fair-mindedly observes, “[i]t is not immediately obvious which agents could take on the role of bearers of constituent powers in post-national orders, and it may be risky to stretch the notion too far” (Niesen, 2017: 1).…”

Section: Habermas Postnational Constituent Power and Civil Disobedimentioning

confidence: 99%

Constituent power and civil disobedience: Beyond the nation-state?

Scheuerman

2018

Journal of International Political Theory

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Radical democratic political theorists have used the concept of constituent power to sketch ambitious models of radical democracy, while many legal scholars deploy it to make sense of the political and legal dynamics of constitutional politics. Its growing popularity notwithstanding, I argue that the concept tends to impede a proper interpretation of civil disobedience, conceived as nonviolent, politically motivated lawbreaking evincing basic respect for law. Contemporary theorists who employ it cannot distinguish between civil disobedience and other related, yet ultimately different, modes of political illegality (e.g. conscientious objection, resistance, revolution). The essay also examines Jürgen Habermas’ recent contributions to a theory of mixed or dualistic (postnational) constituent power, conceding that Habermas avoids many theoretical and political ills plaguing competing radical democratic theoretical retrievals. Nonetheless, Habermas’ attempt to salvage the idea of constituent power as part of his reformist agenda for the European Union not only breaks with his earlier understandable skepticism about the idea but also risks trimming the admirably ambitious sails of his radical democratic interpretation of civil disobedience.

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Section: Habermas Postnational Constituent Power and Civil Disobedimentioning

confidence: 99%

Constituent power and civil disobedience: Beyond the nation-state?

Scheuerman

2018

Journal of International Political Theory

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“…While destituent power receives passing mentions in Lorey’s (2019) article and Niesen’s (2019a) introduction, only in Markus Patberg’s (2019) contribution do we find a systematic treatment of the concept. Moving beyond his extensive prior work on supranational constitutionalism and constituent power at that higher level (Patberg, 2014, 2016, 2017a, 2017b, 2018), his discussion of destituent power lays out a series of definitional categories ultimately interested in the abilities (1) of states to exercise civil disobedience within supranational institutions and (2) of popular sovereignty movements to articulate themselves in a non-constituent manner. In an effort to treat destituent power as an umbrella for multiple concepts, Patberg (2019) defines it broadly as ‘a category according to which opposition to or withdrawal from the regulatory grasp of public authority can function as a legitimate trigger for constitutional change’ (2019: 83).…”

Section: Resistance Disobedience or Constituent Power? – Disentanglmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potentiality, political protest and constituent power: A response to the special issue

Murphy

2019

Journal of International Political Theory

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Emergent forms of political protest and constitution often provide limit cases for their contemporary theoretical models, and transnational protest movements from Occupy to Democracy in Europe 2025 are no exception. The recent special issue of the Journal of International Political Theory offers a number of different conceptual paths towards understanding these developments, revising and refreshing categories like civil disobedience, opposition, resistance, as well as constituent and destituent power. However, the plurality of perspectives in the special issue leads to a certain degree of uncertainty in the use of terms. This response to the special issue begins with a reflection on its major conceptual developments, addresses the missed encounter with Giorgio Agamben’s theory of ‘destituent potential’ and develops a framework for contrasting different theoretical approaches to political protest and constitution through their relation to potentiality. This taxonomy of emergent forms of political protest and constitution complements the substantial theoretical developments undertaken in the special issue by making the important conceptual relationships between them more readily visible. As well, by demonstrating the applicability of potentiality to the study of International Relations, this framework contributes to the project of the theoretical investigation of international politics.

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“…In contrast, the classical (democratic) notion of constituent power insists that decisions regarding the organisation of public authority should be the result of a democratic process of higher law-making. Constituent power includes two fundamental ideas, namely that political orders should be established and reformed on the initiative of free and equal persons and that constituted powers should be excluded from constitutional politics to prevent the danger that public authority takes a life of its own through the self-referential distribution of competences (Patberg 2017a: 51–2). Elsewhere, I have argued that the distinction between pouvoir constituant and pouvoirs constitués can be implemented at the EU level if we understand it as a separation of powers that is to be institutionalised within its constitutional order.…”

Section: Constituent Power In the Eu: Beyond Retrospective And Functimentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenging the masters of the treaties: Emerging narratives of constituent power in the European Union

Patberg¹

2018

Glob. Con.

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Abstract:There is a growing sense that if the EU is to avoid disintegration, it needs a constitutional renewal. However, a reform negotiated between executives will hardly revitalise the European project. In light of this, commentators have suggested that the EU needs a democratic refounding on popular initiative. But that is easier said than done. Shaping the EU has been an elite enterprise for decades and it is hard to imagine how things could be otherwise. In this article, I map four public narratives of constituent power in the EU to sketch out potential alternatives. Political actors increasingly call into question the conventional role of the states as the ‘masters of the treaties’ and construct alternative stories as to who should be in charge of EU constitutional politics, how the respective subject came to find itself in that position, and how it should invoke its founding authority in the future. These public narratives represent a promising starting point for a normative theory that outlines a viable and justifiable path for transforming the EU in a bottom-up mode.

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Constituent Power: A Discourse‐Theoretical Solution to the Conflict between Openness and Containment

Cited by 20 publications

References 11 publications

Constituent power and civil disobedience: Beyond the nation-state?

Constituent power and civil disobedience: Beyond the nation-state?

Potentiality, political protest and constituent power: A response to the special issue

Challenging the masters of the treaties: Emerging narratives of constituent power in the European Union

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