The Public of Treason

• In Event: Ethics, Trust, Forgiveness, and Punishment

Abstract

This paper examines the role of the public as spectator and as actor in the definition, prosecution, and judgment of treason. Unlike many other crimes against the state, which often involve prosecutions shrouded in mystery because they are purported to touch on matters of national security, both the prosecution and punishment of treason tend to get publicized and sensationalized in ways that demand the attention if not the participation of the public. Whether, as in monarchical and autocratic regimes, treason is defined as an offense against the sovereign, or, as in democratic regimes, it is characterized as a crime against the people as a whole, state responses to treason almost always look to the public to reaffirm existing or assert new understandings of allegiance, belonging, authority, and obedience. As this paper demonstrates using examples from medieval Europe, early modern England, and apartheid South Africa, the public can be both instigator and antagonist of the state where purported acts of treason are concerned. By calling on the public to bear witness to and ratify a particular framing of treason and traitors, the state may activate a popular (though not necessarily democratic) form of participation that cuts against the state’s interests. Sometimes, the public pushes the state to act vigorously against supposed enemies in ways that may heighten social tensions and exacerbate political conflict; sometimes, the public pushes back against attempts by the state to punish particular kinds of conduct or classes of individual.

Author

• Clement Fatovic, Florida International University