A Constitutional Moment? The Logics of "Hit the Bottom"

Is there such a thing as collective addiction? Do we recognise addiction as a genuine social phenomenon? Through the lens of systems theory, we look for and find which it is possible that social processes might exhibit the properties of addictive behaviour. What does this fascinating phenomenon have to do with constitutional moments? Teubner draws a bow from self-harming growth compulsions of social systems to new orientations, which cannot be effected from the outside but only through the transformation of their "inner constitution". The hypotheses of the paper are that: (1) in order to understand the recent global financial crisis, we should look for the underlying self-destructive growth compulsions of information flows - in other words, for phenomena of collective addiction. (2) "Hit the bottom" refers to the constitutional moment when either a catastrophe begins, or societal forces for change are mobilised of such intensity that the "inner constitution" of the economy transforms under their pressure. (3) Plain money reform is one of several examples that illustrate a capillary constitutionalisation of the global economy, the effects of which could not be achieved through either national or transnational interventions of the world of states. (4) The dichotomy constitutional/unconstitutional develops into a binary meta-code within the structural coupling between the economy and law, and is ordered above both the legal code and the economic code.

Keywords: Societal Constitutionalism, Collective Addiction, Plain Money Reform, Inner Constitution of Social Sub-System.

Gunther Teubner, Un Momento Costituzionale? Le logiche del "Toccare il fondo" in "SOCIOLOGIA E POLITICHE SOCIALI" 2/2011, pp 11-48, DOI: 10.3280/SP2011-002002