Jonathan White - Civil disobedience as a form of emergency politics

Jonathan White, Deputy Head of the European Institute and Professor in Politics at the London School of Economics, examines civil disobedience.

About Jonathan White

"I am the Deputy Head of the European Institute and Professor of Politics at the European Institute of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

My research focuses on democratic theory, European politics and the politics of emergency. My most recent book, which came out in 2019, was very much on these topics and was called Politics of Last Resort: Governing by Emergency in the European Union, with Oxford University Press."

A critique of emergency politics

Emergency politics in general is a reactive form of politics. When one engages the formula of exceptional measures for exceptional times it’s often with a sense that one has no choice. The governing authorities of the day typically pronounce what they are doing as unavoidable, both in its substance – we have no choice but to take certain economic or geopolitical measures – and its timing – we can’t afford to wait and need to act now.

If we think of the 21st century as characterised by all politics lapsing into emergency politics, and if that becomes a pattern, then it would be surprising if one didn’t see the emergence of a critique that says this is just too acquiescent. Political authorities shouldn’t be taking decisions just because circumstances require it. They should be calling the shots. They should be deciding what priorities they want to follow. They should sometimes refuse to be influenced by the financial markets or by other forms of pressure; they should insist that they are the ones who choose what they want to do. In other words, the critique is that they should be engaging in a politics of what I call volition rather than a politics of necessity.

Key Points

• The story of 2020 can be seen as one of emergency politics and anti-emergency politics.
• In many countries with populist leaders, there is a desire to frame choices as an extension of volition and to reject a politics of necessity.
• The climate change crisis could give rise to an alternative emergency politics based in social movements.