Democratizing the Past for the Equal Present and Future Wellbeing of all Members of a Polity

ABSTRACT

The political institutionalisation of common wellbeing and the promise that all members of the polity count equally gives political rule its legitimisation. Access to resources at the disposal of public authorities and the ethico-political standing to call upon them is not distributed equally across all groups in a polity. The political struggles of the Wet’suwet’en against the pipeline occupation of Indigenous land, and the initiatives of Black Americans/Turtle Islanders for ReADdress for Slavery attest to this.¹ These struggles demonstrate that there are forms of past harmdoing that have an effect on, and are inscribed in, present structures and arrangements of the political. This article looks at the past and present epistemic ignorances and power inequalities to co-shape the authoritative political version of wellbeing that lead to ethico-political abandonment and a refusal to renegotiate the structures and institutions in North America/Turtle Island now that Wet’suwet’en and Black Americans (ought to) have an equal ethico-political standing. I demonstrate that the past injustices of colonialism and slavery co-shape the polity’s present and its haveable futures. Acts of democratising the past in the present bestow upon the harmed an inclusion in current political attentiveness and wellbeing that they did not experience from past contemporaries.

KEYWORDS:

• Public wellbeing
• epistemic ignorance
• ethico-political abandonment
• accumulated burdens and privileges

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 I use the term United States/Turtle Island, respectively Canada/Turtle Island, as Turtle Island is an Indigenous term, though not Indigenous word, for North America that stems from Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and Lenape origin stories. It is of course not representative of all the different names that the continent has in the hundreds of Indigenous languages. And it is not a representation of an Indigenous concept in an Indigenous language, as English is a colonial language. I sincerely regret that I could not come up with a more inclusive approach to naming that does not make one language central again. I will gladly receive suggestions for more inclusive naming practices.

2 I would like to thank Jim Lacy and the anonymous reviewer for their helpful and supportive feedback on this article.

3 My focus on these two polities is by no means meant as pointing a finger at them. To my knowledge, all political entities were founded on some forms of injustice. By looking at these two polities, I mean to learn first and foremost how my own polity, Germany, could establish better practices in repairing their political fabric co-woven and torn by genocide, colonization, enslaved labor and oppression.

4 See Carrigg (2020).

5 See Carrigg (2020).

6 See Spivak (1988).

7 See Snyder (2020).

8 Ibid.

9 See Wilson-Raybould (2017).

10 See Heidenreich (2020).

11 I will, however, invite comments to this effect with an open heart and mind!

12 Paschal and Carlisle (2019).

13 See Potter (2013).

14 See Feagin and O’Brian (1999).

15 See The Guardian, 17.06.2020.

16 See Coates (2014).

17 See Andrew (2019).

18 See Wolin (1994; 304).

19 See Walker (2006a; 20 ff).

20 See Segers 2019.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jorma Heier

Jorma Heier is a Junior Lecturer and PhD Candidate in Political Theory at the University of Osnabrück, Germany and Equal Opportunities and Diversity commissioner at Flensburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany. Heier's research interests include political repair, care theory, Arendt studies, epistemologies of ignorance, postcolonial theories, structural discrimination and its abolishment, relational responsibility, and feminist theories. Publications in these fields include Democratic Inclusion Trough Caring Together with Others (2020), Relationale Verantwortung- Vergangenheitszugewandteund zukunftsbezogene Sorge (2016), Disabling Constraints on Democratic Participation (2015) and A Modest Proposal for Transnational Justice and Political Responsibility (2014).