Source: Lecture 6, A Comparative Survey of Racial and Ethnic Groups (UC Berkeley)
Tags: abolition democracy, prison-industrial complex, PIC, infrapolitics, reform vs revolutionary reform, enclosure, multiscalar, decriminalization, demilitarization, fugitive slave law, mass incarceration, political prisoners, queer activism, white settler colonialism
This lecture introduces the concept of abolition democracy and the political landscape surrounding it, including how reform efforts differ from revolutionary reform, how enclosure operates at multiple scales (from the body to the global), and how state practices such as fugitive slave laws have historically shaped freedom and control. The through-line is the tension between comfort and suffering, and the political tactics people use to close that gap.
Abolition democracy
A political framework concerned with dismantling carceral and oppressive systems (not simply reforming them) and building new democratic institutions in their place.
Infrapolitics
The everyday, often hidden ways people exercise power to achieve political goals, beneath the level of formal politics.
Reform-reform vs. revolutionary reform
A distinction between reforms that merely adjust the existing system without challenging its foundations (reform-reform) and reforms that are steps toward fundamentally transforming or abolishing the system (revolutionary reform).
Prison-industrial complex (PIC)
The overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as responses to social, political, and economic problems.
Multiscalar
Operating across multiple scales simultaneously. In this context, enclosure and control function at the level of the body, the family, the community, the state, the nation, and the global.
Enclosure
The process of bounding, controlling, and restricting people and spaces. Operates differently at each scale, from the regulation of individual bodies to the drawing of national borders.
Decriminalization
The removal of criminal penalties for certain acts or behaviours, particularly those that disproportionately target marginalised communities.
Demilitarization
The reduction or removal of military-style resources, tactics, and frameworks from domestic policing and governance.
Fugitive slave law
A provision embedded in the US Constitution requiring the return of escaped enslaved people, even across state lines. An example of state practices that codified racial control.
The lecture opens with the idea of "putting up of a system," framing abolition democracy as both a critique of existing structures and a constructive political project.
Primo Levi's poem is referenced as a moral anchor: always keep in view the gap between those who are comfortable and those who suffer, and work to narrow it.
A key provocation: does it matter if we arrive at the right result for the wrong reason? This raises questions about the ethics of political tactics and coalition-building.
Frederick Douglass is invoked on the meaning of liberty and freedom, grounding the discussion in the long history of Black political thought.
Infrapolitics names the reality that people use whatever power they have, formal or informal, to pursue political ends.
The fugitive slave law in the Constitution is a case study: how does the state compromise freedom through law? Students are prompted to think about the mechanics of state-level legal compromise.
Reform-reform vs. revolutionary reform: the distinction matters for both the vision of freedom being pursued and the tactical choices made to get there.
Political prisoners preceded mass incarceration: before the current era of mass imprisonment, the carceral state was already targeting political dissidents. This historical ordering matters for understanding how the PIC developed.
Queer activism and the PIC: queer communities have a particular relationship to policing and incarceration, making queer activism a significant strand of abolitionist politics.
Decriminalization and demilitarization: these are active processes, not abstract ideals. States are making decisions now. The lecture connects these to the deeper history of white settler colonialism.
Enclosure is not a single phenomenon. It operates at every scale:
Body: direct physical control, surveillance, incarceration
Family: the heteropatriarchal nuclear family as a unit of regulation
Community: racialised neighbourhoods, coded as "good" or "bad"
State, nation, global: borders, immigration enforcement, international power structures
The family scale is linked to heteropatriarchy: the nuclear family form is itself a mechanism of enclosure.
At the community scale, the racialisation of neighbourhoods carries moral weight, shaping who is seen as deserving of resources and protection.
⚠️ The distinction between reform-reform and revolutionary reform is a core analytical tool. Be ready to apply it to specific historical or contemporary examples.
⚠️ Multiscalar enclosure is a key concept. Expect questions that ask you to trace how control operates across different scales simultaneously, not just at one level.
⚠️ The relationship between political prisoners and mass incarceration is a historical sequencing point. Know the order and why it matters.
⚠️ Infrapolitics is easy to overlook but likely to appear in exam prompts about everyday resistance and informal power.
Q: What is the difference between reform-reform and revolutionary reform in the context of abolition democracy?
A: Reform-reform adjusts the existing system without challenging its core logic (e.g. improving prison conditions without questioning imprisonment). Revolutionary reform treats each change as a step toward dismantling the system entirely and replacing it with something new.
Q: What does "multiscalar" mean in the context of enclosure, and why does it matter?
A: Multiscalar means that enclosure operates simultaneously at multiple levels: body, family, community, state, nation, and global. It matters because analysing control at only one scale misses how these levels reinforce each other.
Q: How does the concept of infrapolitics help us understand resistance under oppressive systems?
A: Infrapolitics captures the everyday, often invisible ways people exercise power to pursue political goals, beneath the threshold of formal political action. It broadens the definition of resistance beyond organised movements to include subtle, strategic uses of whatever power is available.
Q: Why is the historical existence of political prisoners relevant to understanding mass incarceration?
A: It shows that the carceral state was already targeting people for political reasons before the era of mass incarceration. Mass incarceration did not emerge from nowhere; it built on existing structures of political repression.
abolition democracy, prison-industrial complex, PIC, infrapolitics, James C. Scott, reform-reform, revolutionary reform, non-reformist reform, enclosure, multiscalar analysis, heteropatriarchy, nuclear family, racialised neighbourhoods, decriminalization, demilitarization, white settler colonialism, fugitive slave law, fugitive slave clause, political prisoners, mass incarceration, queer activism, Frederick Douglass, Primo Levi, ES21AC, UC Berkeley, comparative survey racial ethnic groups