The People

by Canovan, Margaret

• ISBN13: 9780745628226
• ISBN10: 0745628222
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-09-16
• Publisher: Polity

Summary

This groundbreaking study sets out to clarify one of the most influential but least studied of all political concepts. Despite continual talk of popular sovereignty, the idea of the people has been neglected by political theorists who have been deterred by its vagueness. Margaret Canovan argues that it deserves serious analysis, and that it's many ambiguities point to unresolved political issues. The book begins by charting the conflicting meanings of the people, especially in Anglo-American usage, and traces the concept's development from the ancient populus Romanus to the present day. The book's main purpose is, however, to analyse the political issues signalled by the people's ambiguities. In the remaining chapters, Margaret Canovan considers their theoretical and practical aspects: * Where are the people's boundaries? Is people equivalent to nation, and how is it related to humanity - people in general? * Populists aim to 'give power back to the people'; how is populism related to democracy? * How can the sovereign people be an immortal collective body, but at the same time be us as individuals? Can we ever see that sovereign people in action? * Political myths surround the figure of the people and help to explain its influence; should the people itself be regarded as fictional? This original and accessible study sheds a fresh light on debates about popular sovereignty, and will be an important resource for students and scholars of political theory.

Author Biography

Margaret Canovan is Emeritus Professor of Political Thought at the University of Keele.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii
Introduction	1	(9)
Identifying the People	3	(3)
The Sovereign People in Action and in Myth	6	(4)
`The People' and its Past	10	(30)
Prelude in Rome: The People in Action	11	(5)
The People in Reserve: From Shadow to Substance	16	(4)
Civil War to American Revolution: The English People in Rebellion	20	(6)
We the People: The American Revolution and its Significance	26	(7)
Popular Sovereignty and Parliamentary Reform in Nineteenth-Century Britain	33	(4)
Popular Government and the People	37	(3)
Ourselves and Others: People, Nation and Humanity	40	(25)
People and Nation	41	(7)
People-building	48	(9)
Peoples and People	57	(8)
Part and Whole: People, Populism and Democracy	65	(26)
The Common People	68	(6)
Populism in Contemporary Liberal Democracies	74	(4)
Identifying Populism	78	(5)
Populism, Democracy and the People	83	(8)
We the Sovereign People	91	(31)
Can Popular Sovereignty be Understood?	94	(11)
Can Popular Sovereignty be Exercised?	105	(17)
Myths of the Sovereign People	122	(17)
Myths of the People	124	(6)
The People as a Fiction	130	(2)
The People as Myth and Political reality	132	(7)
Conclusion	139	(3)
Notes	142	(4)
References	146	(13)
Index	159