Vers les biens communs. Souveraineté et propriété au xxie siècle

Abstract

The common goods challenge two fundamental categories of modernity : sovereignty and property. This diarchy, which has become paradigmatic since the Napoleonic Code, characterizes property as the basis of liberty and the condition of equality : only the relation to ownership can make it possible to overcome social inequalities. This interpretation limits citizenship to the owners. The constitutions developed after the Second World War took a different way : they institutionalized fundamental rights and opened a path from the subject to the person. The common goods are part of this second trend and go hand in hand with the emergence of a new subjectivity linked with the process of « constitutionalization » of the person. Their interdependency with fundamental rights contributes to a shift from the idea of property as a unique mediation for the development of the person and to highlight the importance of access to goods. The paper argues for a double shift : first, the construction of the person is delegated to other logics than property ; secondly, access is conceived as a device to make goods immediately available without any mediation. The knot between property and sovereignty starts therefore to be untied.

Keywords

• sovereignty
• property
• commons
• Italy
• person