Violence and constituent power in the creation of the American Republic

2021 ◽  
pp. 90-133
Author(s):  
Hèctor López Bofill
Author(s):  
Joel Colón-Ríos

This chapter examines the ways in which the debates about the nature and implications of the theory of constituent power that arose during the French Revolution reappeared in later constituent episodes. It pays particular attention to the electoral rules regulating citizen activity and to the types of constitutional forms that resulted from them. In Part I, the chapter explores the distinction between the constituent power of the people and the constituent power of the nation. From each of these notions, emanate different types of legal and institutional demands on the juridical order. After distinguishing between these two approaches, the chapter examines, in Part II, the ways in which they were (or not) put into practice in the constitution-making process that resulted in the creation of the Spanish Constitution of 1812. Part III focuses on the creation of the Venezuelan Constitution of 1811 and Part IV examines the process that led to the adoption of the Colombian Constitution of 1886. During these three processes, constituent power became an extraordinary constitution-making jurisdiction directed at the identification of the common good, and as a power that could be exercised through mechanisms that excluded important parts of the population.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 508-515
Author(s):  
Elettra Stimilli

Immanence is a key concept in Gilles Deleuze's thought. It emerges in 1968, in the book Expressionism in Philosophy: Spinoza and it is a focus until his last text. Immanence is a concept steeped in theological resonances, which disturbs Western metaphysics and politics. But, according to Deleuze, immanence is not really a concept, rather it is a ‘plan’. ‘The plan of immanence’ is the ‘prephilosophical’ working plan of philosophy. The point is that, according to Deleuze, philosophy cannot be understood only conceptually, although it begins with the creation of concepts. Here, rather, what is at stake is a prephilosophical origin of philosophy itself. This relationship between the plane of immanence and philosophy is the most important aspect that some of best-known exponents of contemporary Italian philosophy have inherited from Deleuze. The focus of this essay is on three expressions of the plane of immanence in the sense of Deleuze that have been developed in contemporary Italian Thought: the ‘constituent power’ of politics in Antonio Negri; the ‘impersonal’ in Roberto Esposito; and the ‘potentiality’ in Giorgio Agamben.


Author(s):  
Joel Colón-Ríos

This chapter traces the gradual emergence of the distinction between the constituted and the constituent power in the work of Sieyès, using Rousseau as the main source of comparison. It examines how Sieyès constructed constituent power as an extra-legal force and identifies the key juridical implications of his views. Part I briefly considers some uses of the term ‘constituent power’ before Sieyès and outside the context of the French Revolution. Part II examines Sieyès’ early pamphlets, where he puts forward his initial understanding of the power to be exercised by the nation’s representatives in the Estates-General. This approach, it will be seen in Part III, led him to propose the creation of a supreme constitution that ensured that the (representative) law-making power acted consistently with the general will. Part IV of the chapter focuses on Sieyès’ main published work, What is the Third Estate?, which contains a more developed formulation of the distinction between constituent and constituted power, as well as about the nature of representation. In that work, one can also see a transformation of Sieyès’ conception of the legislative power, one that brought him further than ever away from Rousseau. Finally, the chapter considers the role of extra-ordinary representatives in Sieyès’ conception of constitution-making and constitutional reform.


2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefen Beeler-Duden ◽  
Meltem Yucel ◽  
Amrisha Vaish

Abstract Tomasello offers a compelling account of the emergence of humans’ sense of obligation. We suggest that more needs to be said about the role of affect in the creation of obligations. We also argue that positive emotions such as gratitude evolved to encourage individuals to fulfill cooperative obligations without the negative quality that Tomasello proposes is inherent in obligations.


Author(s):  
Nicholas Temperley
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