A Constitutional Moment? The Logics of 'Hitting the Bottom'

Abstract

The article draws a bow from self-harming growth compulsions of social systems, over the moment of near-catastrophe, to new orientations, which cannot be effected from the outside but, rather, only through the transformation of their ‘inner constitution’. (1) In order to understand the recent global financial crisis, we should not rely on factor analysis alone. Instead, 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, transnational constitutionalism, constitutional moment, growth compulsion, collective addiction, economic constitution, financial crisis, binary code, autopoiesis, plain money

JEL Classification: A10, A13, A14, E00, E40, K00, K10, O00