Sovereignism as privilege: Sovereign citizens, (white) grievance and appeasement

Abstract

Since the pandemic, sovereign citizens who reject the existence and legitimacy of the state, democracy and the legal order have gained popularity and attention worldwide. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork among sovereign citizens and state authorities in Switzerland and the Netherlands, this article proposes an understanding of sovereignism as privilege. Given that research and public discourse often tend to criminalize, victimize or pathologize sovereign citizens, the article analyses sovereignism as a political phenomenon instead. The focus is placed on power relations and privilege with regard to sovereign citizens’ positionalities (race, class, gender), the presence/absence of the state in their lives, and state response to sovereignism. In interactions with state authorities, sovereignism as privilege manifests in (white) grievance and appeasement, thereby preserving political orders of privilege and hierarchy. The article concludes that sovereignism constitutes a particular, privileged configuration of state rejection.