Project description
State repression of dissent versus citizen rights
From the ‘non-lethal weapons’ used in France against the gilets jaunes, to neoliberalism protesters in Chile, and Black Lives Matters supporters in the US, examples of state repression against outbursts of dissent are common. The EU-funded PLEBRIGHTS project considers these as blows to the thin veil of formal equality that conceals the structural forms of domination that easily reproduce in environments with high socioeconomic inequality. This Marie Skłodowska-Curie action will show how the rights of the common people have historically originated in power relations. The project will also offer a theory of political and socioeconomic rights emerging from this plebeian practice of resistance.
Objective
Even before the pandemic hit, it had become clear that democratic regimes around the world are in crisis. While the majority of governments are democratic only in appearance, constitutional rights have been revealed as weak protections against oligarchic states even in OECD member countries —most recently with the brutal repression involving “non-lethal weapons” used in France against the gilet jaunes, in Chile against those protesting neoliberalism, and in the Unites States against Black Lives Matters supporters. These outbursts of dissent and state repression come to puncture the thin veil of formal equality that conceals the structural forms of domination that easily reproduce in environments with high socioeconomic inequality. The dominant liberal theory of rights, grounded on natural equality and abstract principles, has been incapable of properly addressing the limits that material conditions imposed on the equal enjoyment of basic rights. Experiments with socioeconomic rights in South Africa and collective rights in Latin America have begun to push the constitutional boundaries of the liberal conception of rights, and have also revealed the limitations imposed by the main theoretical frameworks. During the fellowship I will write a book that will provide an alternative to the predominant philosophical framework of liberal constitutionalism, in which rights tend to be interpreted as formal and negative, as well as to the communitarian conception of rights. Through a plebeian theoretical framework and an interdisciplinary analysis combining intellectual history, comparative politics, philosophy, and critical legal theory, I will show how the rights of the common people have historically originated in power relations and the juridical protections gained in the popular struggle against oligarchic domination, and offer a theory of political and socioeconomic rights emerging from this plebeian praxis of resistance.
Fields of science
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
CB2 1TN Cambridge
United Kingdom