They Stormed the Capitol. Their Apps Tracked Them

They Stormed the Capitol. Their Apps Tracked Them(nytimes.com)

15 points by arctux 5 years ago | 4 comments

There is a political philosophy theory I am looking for but can not find. What is the name of the logical argument for when a government founded by insurrection then turns around and criminalizes insurrection? That seems like the first cadre of government would be declaring themselves criminals which does not make sense. Pretty much every government does this but I can not find the search terms for it.

jfengel 5 years ago | |

It seems to fall pretty naturally from the theory that any government has a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence[1]. An insurrection would violate that.

The original insurrection was illegal under the old government, but that government no longer exists to prosecute it. The new regime doesn't need to explicitly make insurrection illegal, but it implicitly does through its inherent monopoly on violence.

Democratic countries split the difference by allowing peaceful, scheduled transitions of power. That's not insurrection. Insurrection occurs only when that is violated, especially by violence. Peaceful insurrections are conceivable, but only if the existing government consents to it, which stretches the definition of "insurrection".

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly_on_violence

CompuHacker 5 years ago | |

Well, for one, ex post facto laws criminalize behavior retroactively.

The introduction to this article covers a lot of edge cases right off the bat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex_post_facto_law

opwieurposiu 5 years ago | | |

Thanks, your link lead me eventually to what I was looking for:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_revolution