Popular Sovereignty in Modern Islamic Thought: The Question of Constituent Power

• In Event: Conceptualizing Sovereignty in Comparative Political Thought

Abstract

Constituent authority refers to the idea of the original source of legitimate government, the right to authorize the exercise of political power, or the authority to create a new constitutional order. It is the authority to which all operative, constituted powers—including a state’s constitution—refer and beyond which there can be no moral appeal. Constituent authority is most intimately associated with theories of popular sovereignty and democratic founding. Democratic theorists contrast the vision of constituent power as productive, generative and collaborative with the statist vision of sovereignty as the power of ultimate command beyond which there is no appeal. Many contemporary democratic theorists see constituent power as not only as explanation for the legitimacy of existing constituted regimes, but also as a potential source of democratic renewal today.
Modern Islamic legal and political theory has also struggled with the concept of constituent authority (al-sulṭa al-taʾsīsiyya). On the one hand, most Islamic political doctrines hold that governance itself is divinely ordained and specific offices or forms of government are also required by the divine law. On the other hand, modern Sunni political thought in particular has sought to deepen its commitment to popular sovereignty and the ultimate authority of the people over public institutions. This has led to a rich debate in modern Islamic thought about the scope of constituent authority: are specific offices and institutions seen as ordained by God, thus locating all constituent authority in the interpretation of divine law, or are powers to create and authorize new institutions assigned to other agents?

Author

• Andrew F. March, University of Massachusetts, Amherst