caa a22 4500 467920931 CHVBK 20180406152916.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170328e20061101xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10978-006-9000-4 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10978-006-9000-4 Newton Scott Department of Law, School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, WC1H 0XG, Russell Square, London, UK aut Constitutionalism and imperialism Sub Specie Spinozae [Elektronische Daten] [Scott Newton] Contemporary interpretations of Spinozan political theory and metaphysics (Negri, Balibar, Deleuze) suggest a parallel critique of constitutionalism and imperialism. Spinoza's suspicion (in the Ethics) of every attempt to divide constituting power (potentia) from constituted power (potestas), and his simultaneous concern with the structure of constitutional frameworks (in the Political Treatise) and with their symbolic or passional significance (in the Theologico-Political Treatise) reveal the double-edged property of constitutionalism: its capacity both to constrain and to facilitate the dynamics of potentia, of the power of bodies. Imperialism operates in a similar fashion, on larger scales. European colonial empires were constituted as complexes of juridical-institutional forms, aggregating colonial subjects as new multitudes. They created new, hybrid worlds (however repressive and limited) with the bricks and mortar of institutions and conditioned the emergence of new political subjectivities, both releasing and channelling the flow of potentia. From a Spinozan perspective, the operations of constitutionalism and imperialism can be seen as analogous, and uncritical celebration of the one and condemnation of the other both become problematic. Springer Science+Business Media B.V., 2006 constitutionalism nationallicence imperialism nationallicence potentia (pouvoir constituant) nationallicence potestas (pouvoir constitué) nationallicence Spinoza nationallicence Law and Critique Kluwer Academic Publishers 17/3(2006-11-01), 325-355 0957-8536 17:3<325 2006 17 10978 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-006-9000-4 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-006-9000-4 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Newton Scott Department of Law, School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, WC1H 0XG, Russell Square, London, UK aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Law and Critique Kluwer Academic Publishers 17/3(2006-11-01), 325-355 0957-8536 17:3<325 2006 17 10978 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer