Meyers, Jeffrey B.
(2011)
Toward a Negri-inspired theory of c/Constitution: a
contemporary Canadian case study.
PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Abstract
This thesis excavates Antonio Negri's theorization of the distinction between 'the
material and formal constitution' (one which I distinguish throughout by way of
capitalization as 'the material constitution' and 'the formal Constitution' or, in the
shorthand contraction, 'c/Constitution'). In the first half of the thesis this is undertaken
by way of a theoretical line of inquiry (Chapter I-III) and in the second as a series of
concretized case studies drawn from contemporary Canadian constitutional
historiography (Chapters IV-VI).
The first chapter of this thesis (Chapter I) presents the October 1970 Front de libération
de Québec (FLQ) Crisis as an event which contains within itself, not unlike similar
events surrounding the kidnap and murder of Aldo Moro by the Brigate Rosse (BR) in
1978 Italy, the contours of a Negri-inspired entry into the subject matter. Chapter II
offers a more situated analysis of some of Negri's key texts on the c/Constitution from
the sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties to further ground the conceptual experiment
underlying the thesis. Chapter III examines how Negri's thought is developed and
brought up to date in his English language collaboration with Michael Hardt. Here, a
significant detour will be taken through the critical literature responsive to Empire
(2000). This is done first in a contemporary Canadian analysis of the form of
sovereignty corresponding to 'Empire' (Chapter IV); second in a Canadian inquiry into
the form of collective subjectivity understood by the concept of 'the multitude' (Chapter
V); and, third in an Indigenous Canadian consideration of possible alternatives to the
Constitution of the State in the 'constitution of the common' (Chapter VI).
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