This Handbook examines constituent power--a key concept in political and constitutional theory. Central to both the real-world processes of constitution-making and constitutional transformation and in their academic analyses. Leading scholars across disciplines explore the political constitutional and normative relevance of the concept.
The Oxford Handbook of Constituent Power maps and systematically examines the revival of constituent power. In recent decades, scholars, as well as political actors, have rediscovered the category and used it in ever new ways,
challenging traditional accounts of its scope and function. But while new and creative applications may have inspired political developments and led to innovation in political and constitutional theory, the proliferation of accounts of constituent power has brought with it some concept stretching.
This Handbook takes inventory of the state of the art, critically examines new ideas, and puts them on a systematic footing. In sixty chapters, it explores new paths in the intellectual history of constituent power (Part I); systematically develops the idea of constituent power in its relation to neighbouring concepts such as sovereignty (Part II); examines constituent power’s role and meaning in the context of different types of polities, including international institutions such as the European Union and the United Nations (Part III); investigates the plural manifestations of constituent power in terms of practices and agents, ranging from revolutionary violence to citizens’ assemblies (Part IV); and tackles new challenges and developments such as the prefigurative politics of protest movements or ascriptions of constituent power to nature (Part V).
Peter Niesen is Professor of Political Theory at Hamburg University. He holds a doctorate in philosophy (1998) and a habilitation in political science (2005) from Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main. He has held visiting positions at Fudan, Harvard, London School of Economics and Political Science, University College London, and Lyon II and has published on Bentham, Kant, democratic theory, and animal politics.
Markus Patberg is Research Associate in Political Theory at the University of Hamburg. From April 2026, he will take up a position as Professor of Political Theory and History of Ideas at the University of Greifswald. He has held visiting positions at University College London, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the University Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. He is the author of Constituent Power in the European Union (Oxford University Press, 2020).
Lucia Rubinelli is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science of Yale University. Before joining Yale, she held post-doctoral positions at the University of Cambridge and the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her first book is titled Constituent Power: A History (CUP, 2020).
