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The people / Margaret Canovan.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Canovan, Margaret.
- Series:
- Key concepts (Polity Press)
- Key concepts
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Populism.
- Sovereignty.
- Self-determination, National.
- Physical Description:
- viii, 161 pages ; 22 cm.
- Place of Publication:
- Cambridge ; Malden, MA : Polity, 2005.
- 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 its 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. 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.
- Contents:
- Identifying the People 3
- The Sovereign People in Action and in Myth 6
- 2 'The People' and its Past 10
- Prelude in Rome: The People in Action 11
- The People in Reserve: From Shadow to Substance 16
- Civil War to American Revolution: The English People in Rebellion 20
- We the People: The American Revolution and its Significance 26
- Popular Sovereignty and Parliamentary Reform in Nineteenth-Century Britain 33
- Popular Government and the People 37
- 3 Ourselves and Others: People, Nation and Humanity 40
- People and Nation 41
- People-building 48
- Peoples and People 57
- 4 Part and Whole: People, Populism and Democracy 65
- The Common People 68
- Populism in Contemporary Liberal Democracies 74
- Identifying Populism 78
- Populism, Democracy and the People 83
- 5 We the Sovereign People 91
- Can Popular Sovereignty be Understood? 94
- Can Popular Sovereignty be Exercised? 105
- 6 Myths of the Sovereign People 122
- Myths of the People 124
- The People as a Fiction 130
- The People as Myth and Political reality 132.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages [146]-158) and index.
- ISBN:
- 0745628214
- 0745628222
- OCLC:
- 60838005
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