Please join the Political Theory Colloquium as they host John Medearis, Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Riverside.
For decades, the most prominent philosophical work on protest has focused on disobedience. Such work has deemphasized protests that are presumed lawful, especially strikes, boycotts, and mass street protests. It has also perpetuated an inadequate vision of law, lawmaking, and their relationship to protest in liberal constitutional polities—a vision of who makes law, how it is made, the posture of lawmakers toward protest, and the democratic significance of law. A survey of the legal history of strikes, boycotts, and mass street protests demonstrates that this vision is too limited. Most significantly, it shows that disobedience is not necessarily disobedience to democratic authority, even where liberal constitutions reign. My historical review also uncovers the vital importance of legal repression, and suggests that any critical philosophy of protest must incorporate a much more realistic vision of law. Finally, recognizing the significance of legal repression — and more generally, the oppositional vision of democratic life that informs this paper — points to a particular understanding of solidarity and its centrality for democratic theory and practice.
John Medearis (Professor) received his Ph.D from the University of California, Los Angeles. His teaching and research interests include: political theory (especially modern and contemporary); democratic theory; protest and social movements; and the philosophy of political inquiry. His book Why Democracy is Oppositional was published by Harvard University Press in June, 2015. He is also author of Joseph Schumpeter’s Two Theories of Democracy (Harvard, 2001) and Joseph A. Schumpeter (Continuum, 2009). His research has appeared in Political Theory, NOMOS, the American Journal of Political Science, the American Political Science Review, the British Journal of Political Science, and Polity.
Ariel Sowers
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