CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2023
| Author | Shahrabi Farahani, Abbas |
|---|---|
| Title | Abolitionist Limits to State Authority: For a Democratic Political Theory of Criminal Justice |
| Summary | This study is organized around two questions: When is the state authority legitimate? And who has the morally legitimate authority to punish so-called criminals? Through a critical analysis of some philosophical accounts of state authority and legal punishment, the thesis argues that neither the state authority in general enjoys a moral foundation, nor the state punitive authority. Behind this critical conception lies some ontological and normative principles that together are called the negative and diarchic idea of authority. According to the ontological principle, any political community is so deeply plural and divided, mainly between the elite’s desire to dominate and the citizens’ desire not to be dominated, which makes the foundations of authority indeterminate. Another ontological principle is that radical plurality makes human action unpredictable and irreversible. This ontology gives rise to two normative principles, i.e., the right not to be dominated and the normative powers of forgiveness and promise. The second normative principle specifically is capable of suspending the state’s punitive authority. Corresponding to this notion of authority and after a critical revision of retributivist and consequentialist accounts of criminal justice as two forms of criminalizing individuals and unpredictability and irreversibility of human actions, a version of abolitionism and restorative justice is set forth that envisages a tripartite structure of criminal justice system (composed of community members, social movements and civil organizations, and state officials and legal professionals). This structure potentially serves as a context in which citizens can develop normative powers of forgiveness and promise. |
| Supervisor | Miklosi, Zoltan |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2023/shahrabi_abbas.pdf |
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