Constituent power beyond exceptionalism: Irregular migration, disobedience, and (re-)constitution

Abstract

This article argues that, far from being a merely defensive act of individual protest, civil disobedience is a much more radical political practice. It is transformative in that it aims at the politicization of questions that are excluded from the political domain and at reconfiguring public space and existing institutions, often in comprehensive ways. Focusing on the reconstitution of the political community also allows us to reconceptualize constituent power. Rather than portraying it as a quasi-mythical force erupting only in extraordinary moments, constituent power can be conceptualized as a dynamic situated within established orders, transgressing their logic and reconfiguring them from within. Civil disobedience as a transformative and potentially comprehensive practice aimed at reconstituting the political order can then be seen as an internal driving force keeping this dialectic in play. A concrete example can be found in protests and border struggles by irregularized migrants. They show how unexpected forms of civil disobedience manage to politicize symbolic and institutional structures that are usually taken for granted or naturalized and thereby removed from politicization, such as borders and citizenship. In this way, they exemplify not only the defensive/reactive but also the constituent/transformative force of disobedience.

Opposition and dissidence: Two modes of resistance against international rule

“…On one hand, civil disobedience belongs to the category of opposition because it entails the overall acceptance of the political system at hand. In partly constitutionalized systems, however, like international politics, even more transformative forms of resistance such as dissidence could often be interpreted as civil disobedience (see also Celikates, 2019). 4.…”

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

“…By arguing that there exists a more radically transformative mode of civil disobedience than conventionally understood, Robin Celikates (2016a, 2016b) builds on his own prior efforts to conceptualize the radical democratic potential of the concept of civil disobedience. The existence of this more radical spirit ‘implies rejecting the sharp distinction often made between disobedience on one hand and constituent power on the other hand’, as exploring the ‘radically transformative potential of civil disobedience’ reveals how – especially at the transnational level – ‘civil disobedience can take on features usually ascribed to constituent power’ (Celikates, 2019: 68–69). Taking the example of irregular migrants who elected to cross sovereign borders without authorization, Celikates (2019) argues that their actions ought to be understood asa principled collective act of protest that involves breaking the law and aims at politicizing or changing laws, policies or institutions in ways that can be seen as civil – as opposed to organized and conducted in a militarized way and aiming at the destruction of the ‘enemy’.…”

“…Taking the example of irregular migrants who elected to cross sovereign borders without authorization, Celikates (2019) argues that their actions ought to be understood asa principled collective act of protest that involves breaking the law and aims at politicizing or changing laws, policies or institutions in ways that can be seen as civil – as opposed to organized and conducted in a militarized way and aiming at the destruction of the ‘enemy’. (2019: 70)…”

The Appeal of Civil Disobedience in the Central Mediterranean

“…Furthermore, a call for civil disobedience might imply an elective affinity between rescuers and rescued. Arguably, the latter too practice civil disobedience by attempting to cross borders (Celikates, 2019); while the disobedience of the rescuers results not least from their criminalisation, the disobedience of the rescued migrants is the outcome of their irregularisation.…”