You are here : Version anglaise > Fellows > Fellows 2024-2025

Peter
NIESEN

Political Theory - Germany

Research topics

SCIENTIFIC PROJECT

"Can Constituent Power Be Split? Pouvoir Constituant Mixte and Public Authority in Contested Orders"

 

Increasingly, the language of pouvoir constituant is used in struggles over democratic legitimacy in contested orders, triggering conceptual and normative revisions. Two phenomena stand out: the development of political orders beyond the state, as in the European Union, and campaigns for independence within states, as in Quebec, Catalonia and Scotland. The category of pouvoir constituant mixte, or split constituent power, first introduced to explain the contested sui generis architecture of the European Union, acknowledges that in complex political orders, constituent power should be conceived as simultaneously operating on two levels: the levels of member states and of the Union citizenry. This research project asks whether the category can be usefully applied to intra-state struggles over legitimacy and can help provide an adequate description and normative evaluation of conflicts over the transformation of contested state orders.

 

Activities / Resume

BIOGRAPHY

Peter Niesen is Professor of Political Theory at Hamburg University and co-editor of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Constituent Power. His research interests lie in International Political Theory, the political philosophies of Kant and Bentham, and animal politics.