Political Science 781 - Const Collapse & Decol Theory

Recent unprecedented events have eroded Constitutional norms, judicial precedents, and even founding principles of the American republic. From a President that tweets in the middle of the night and then receive the attention of the mainstream media; the acquiescence of one major national party to authoritarian actions, the attempted coup of January 6th, 2021, the Supreme Court's decision on presidential immunity, and the reelection of the alleged main culprit of the explicit attempt to subvert the results of a presidential elections, stand out as parts of a sequence that have tested whether a Constitutional republic will survive. Yet emergency declarations, Executive Orders, Congress ceding to the Executive Branch the power to impose tariffs, judicial deference to the President in all matters related to national security, etc., were already systemic features anchored in the structure of the American government. All these elements constitute a legibility crisis. This new and challenging milieu finds some explanations in political theory: we will discuss texts on tendencies toward totalitarianism; ideas of the political; and how an emotional and political subjectivity emerges in both subordinate and dominant groups. This seminar will conclude with an examination of texts on decolonial thought. The aim is to understand how this framework departs, enriches, and may even relies on dominant modes of reasoning in Western culture.