English abstracts #85:

Mathias Hein Jessen: The Fear of Factions in Conceptions of the People – Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau on Sovereignty, People and Politics

In this article, I argue that the concept of popular sovereignty retains the political form of earlier notions of sovereignty insofar as it construes the fundamental political relationship as being that between the individual on the one hand and the state, nation or people on the other. Thereby, the individual becomes the essential political subject and delineates all other associations as political subjects. The article argues that a decisive part of this conception of sovereignty consists in the emptying of the political space between the state and the individual of competing political associations, and that this must be seen as an essential part of the early-modern ‘police’-project that sought to create good order within the body politic. The article analyses the three early modern political thinkers Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau as part of this police-project, that is to say, the intellectual historical emptying of the political space within the state. The article concludes that the modern conception of politics constitutes a particular political order, which cannot think associations as political subjects.

Keywords: Sovereignty, people, police, Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Morten Haugaard Jeppesen: On the Road to Vinciennes – Was Rousseau a Populist?

It is now a widespread assumption that Jean-Jacques Rousseau can be regarded as the (not very) hidden mastermind behind much of what we nowadays refer to as populism. In this paper, I examine that assumption in more detail. First, in continuation of Quentin Skinner, I argue that it is generally problematic to classify classical thinkers in terms of categories that they did not have acces to or know about. Secondly, I argue that this problem applies in particular to Rousseau, whose thinking to a great extent seems to evade any classification. Nevertheless, thirdly, I try to answer the question of whether Rousseau was in fact a populist - and end up concluding that it is a dubious claim. The conclusion of the paper is that the real benefit of revisiting Rousseau lies in the fact that he forces us to rethink our political vocabulary in a way that shakes up established beliefs.

Keywords: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Populism, Intellectual History, Political Theory, Quentin Skinner.

Nicolai von Eggers: Popular Sovereignty in the French Revolution – The Radical Movement and Semi-Direct Democracy 

This article discusses the political ideas that underpinned the radical movement in the French Revolution. Through contextualised readings of Elysée Loustallot, François Robert, and Jean Varlet, I show how French revolutionaries gradually developed a theory of semi-direct democracy. This theory was developed based on concrete experiences in Parisian local assemblies, clubs, and citizen militias, but also drew on ideas - though not uncritically - from thinkers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Focus was on developing a theory and practice of popular sovereignty in which ordinary people would have the greatest possible degree of influence and control. The legislature was to be exercised in networks of local assemblies, the police were to be a democratically controlled citizen militia, and France was to be governed through imperative mandates that would allow local assemblies to control the national government. As I show, this radical republicanism was not opposed to representation, but in contrast to a liberal notion of parliamentary representation via national elections, the focus here was on semi-direct democratic models that could ensure the active participation of the people.

Keywords: Popular sovereignty, representation, semi-direct democracy, The French Revolution, radical republicanism.

Ove Korsgaard: The Conceptual Transformations of “The People”

The focus of the article is the concept of “the people”, which constitutes one of the Danish language's most complex and conflict-filled concepts. The article sheds light on the semantic and ideological-historical transformation process that the concept of people underwent from being primarily associated with household and kinship to its association with nation and democracy. In the older Danish language, the word “folk” was used about society's lowest class, the peasantry, synonymously with terms such as commoners, servants, etc.. From the end of the 18th century onwards, the concept of the people was gradually redefined and became linked with concepts such as nation, culture, language and popular sovereignty. This transformation process is illustrated with the help of dictionaries and political thinkers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Johann Gottfried Herder, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as well as N.F.S. Grundtvig.

Keywords: The common people, the household, the people, the sovereignty of the people.

Anne Engelst Nørgaard: Who Were “The People” in the Nascent Danish Democracy?

This paper investigates the concept of the people in the context of the struggle for political influence immediately after the fall of absolutism in Denmark in 1848-1849. The paper examines how members of a farmers’ organization and conservative actors used the concept. I argue that both groups of actors challenged the dominant liberal conception of the people. The paper analyses the social meanings of the concept of the people. I argue that actors associated with the farmers’ movement and conservative actors used the concept of the people and ideas of equality as a basis for their struggle for influence under the new constitutional rule. I conclude that the concept of the people and, more broadly, a democratic discourse, set the boundaries for how one could express oneself in the struggle for the constitution in 1848-1849.

Keywords: The people, Conceptual history, The Danish Constitution of 1849, The farmers’ movement ‘Bondevennernes Selskab’, Conservatism.

Mikkel Flohr: A Conceptual History of “The People’s Self-rule” in the Danish Constitutional Struggle

This article provides a conceptual history of “the people’s self-rule” [folkets selvstyre] in the Danish constitutional struggles at the end of the nineteenth century, drawing on newspapers, legal and political documents as well as the existing historiography. The people’s self-rule was a central part of the formulation and pursuit of democratic ideas in Denmark, which drew on the hegemonic concept of the people. The United Left Party originally used the people’s self-rule to refer to their political aim of parliamentarism, but in the course of the constitutional struggle it also came to designate the people as a fundamental constitutional power outside and above the king, various governments and, ultimately, also the constitution.  This influenced subsequent conceptions of democracy and/as the “people’s rule” [folkestyre] that came into prominence after the conclusion to the constitutional struggle with the so-called “system change” [systemskifte] in 1901.

Keywords: People, Democracy, Conceptual history, Constituent power, Nationalism.

Jesper Vestermark Køber: Limits to Democracy – The Right-Wing Renaissance and the Reaction against Democracy as a Way of Life

The article explores the three right wing intellectuals Søren Krarup, Bertel Haarder and Henning Fonsmark and a selection of their central texts from the late 1960s to the early 1990s. Based on Quentin Skinner's concept of the "innovative ideologists", the article views Krarup, Haarder and Fonsmark as actors who in their own way redefined the meaning of the concept of democracy and challenged current conventions on the concepts of people and elite. Krarup, Haarder and Fonsmark represented different parts of the right in Denmark, and they drew on different ideals for democracy. However, they shared the aim to confront the dominance of the social democratic conception of democracy that rested on a notion of democracy as a way of life.

Keywords: Democracy, right wing political thought, conservatism, liberalism, welfare state critique.

Mikkel Thorup: Fear of Majorities – Contemporary Neoliberal Critiques of People and Democracy

In a number of critical studies of neoliberalism it is understood and described as outright and inherently anti-democratic, if not in explicit intent than in effect and consequence. In this article, I investigate a contemporary resurgence of neoliberal democracy critique, a resurgence, which began in the 1990s with a globalization narrative of international markets, corporations and the ultra-rich as the new sovereigns in distinction to state and democracy. A narrative which in the early decades of the new millennium moved into various techno-variants of creating neoliberalism here and now in the crevices of existing societies culminating today with an anti-populism where the people is framed as too dangerous and too stupid for democracy to work. The purpose of the article is to explore neoliberal democracy critiques, both as a privileged entry point to understand neoliberalism as such but also to be able to discuss the neoliberal take on democracy, which is plural in its different varieties but ultimately share a fear of the majority.

Keywords: Neoliberalism, democracy, democracy critique, people, majority.

Alberte Bové Rud: Long Live the Leader – An Analysis of The Charismatic Leader’s Relation to their Supporters Focusing on Berlusconi and Salvini?

In the periphery of democracy stands the strong leader eager to be accepted within the framework of popular sovereignty that characterizes democracy. Inspired by Max Weber’s theory of charismatic leadership, this article studies how the strong leader can be considered democratically legitimate if the people is convinced by the leader’s charisma. The article analyses how leaders oozing with charisma take centre stage in the political realm by engaging themselves, their private life and their personality in politics and thereby politicising everyday life. The article focuses on the leadership-style of the Italian politicians, Silvio Berlusconi and Matteo Salvini and present them as archetypical. It is argued that Berlusconi gains personal popularity by being extraordinary and consequently establishing a vertical power structure between himself and the people, while Salvini’s relation to the people is horizontal in that he utilises his personal charisma to present himself as ordinary. Conclusively, the article argues that charismatic leadership is useful in understanding the impact of entertainment and personalisation in modern politics. 

Keywords: Popular sovereignty, leadership, democracy, charisma, Italy. 

Allan Dreyer Hansen: Populism – Concept, History, Logic

This article argues that the widespread understanding of populism as demagoguery, xenophobia, irrationality, etc. is problematic in regard to its actual conceptual history. Populism originates in the late 19th century United States with “The People's Party,” which used the word “populist” as a designation for its supporters. The article charts the subsequent paradoxical history of the concept, as this progressive agrarian party was reinterpreted by a number of mid-20th century revisionist historians whereby the concept took on a number of negative connotations. While the revisionist reading was eventually refuted, it nonetheless shaped subsequent conceptualizations of populism as a broader political phenomenon, which therefore often have to exclude the original populists. I argue that any such concept of populism should be able to account for and include the original populists. I show that Ernesto Laclau’s theory of populism can be adjusted to do just that and proceed to consider some of the normative implications of such a conceptualization of populism. 

Keywords: History of Populism, The People’s Party, Richard Hofstadter, Ernesto Laclau, political logic.