“Popular Sovereignty that I Deny”: Benjamin Constant on Public Opinion, Political Legitimacy and Constitution Making

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Arthur Ghins
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Constitutional State ◽  
Benjamin Constant ◽  
Constitutional Changes ◽  
Constitution Making

According to a dominant narrative, the concept of popular sovereignty was joined to the notion of public opinion during the French Revolution to form the blueprint of a liberal constitutional state. This article shows how, after the Revolution, Benjamin Constant, who is now recognized as a founding figure of “liberalism,” used public opinion as a substitute for popular sovereignty to theorize political legitimacy and constitution making. I show why and when Constant discussed popular sovereignty, namely to dismiss it as an unhelpful and dangerous fiction in answer to factions invoking the concept to revolutionize the political order, or rulers such as Napoleon using it to claim absolute power. In parallel, I explain how Constant designed his alternative, opinion-based theory of legitimacy in the 1790s, before pragmatically adapting it over the course of his career as political regimes changed in France. Constant's substitution of public opinion for popular sovereignty, I contend, reveals distinct views on what makes a political regime legitimate and the meaning of constitutional changes. I conclude with a discussion of how Constant's views, thus interpreted, throw light on debates about sovereignty and public opinion in modern political thought.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Fernando Guirao
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Franco Regime

The title of this book—The European Rescue of the Franco Regime—is not worded to flirt with provocation. It is intended to draw the reader’s attention away from traditional narratives. The thesis widely sustained by scholars and reflected in public opinion is that the institutionalized pattern of European integration contributed to isolate and weaken the political regime that ...

Police Misconduct and Political Legitimacy in Central America

2015 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOSÉ MIGUEL CRUZ
Keyword(s):  
Central America ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Police Misconduct ◽  
Police Corruption ◽  
Political Impact ◽  
Public Collaboration

AbstractWhat is the political impact of police corruption and abuse? From the literature, we know that police misconduct destroys people's confidence in police forces and hampers public collaboration with the criminal-justice system; but, what about the political regime, especially in countries striving for democratic governance? Does police wrongdoing affect the legitimacy of the overall regime? Focusing on Central America, this article provides empirical evidence showing that corruption and abuse perpetrated by police officers erode public support for the political order. Results indicate that, under some circumstances, police transgressions can have a greater impact on the legitimacy of the political system than crime or insecurity. They also show that police misconduct not only affects democratising regimes, such as El Salvador and Guatemala, but also consolidated democracies, such as Costa Rica.

scholarly journals The Political Legitimacy of the Communist Party of China From the Perspective of Constitution

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
Tianyuan Liu
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Chinese People ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Communist Party Of China ◽  
Development Direction ◽  
National Constitution

The Communist Party of China’s political legitimacy is a result which is based on its unique advanced and excellent quality, combines the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism with the concrete practice of China, and gains the support of Chinese people because of leading Chinese people to overthrow the reactionary rule to establish a new completely people's political regime and putting forward the line and route which conform to the development direction and requirement of Chinese social history. That is to say, this is the objective result of the Chinese people's sincere choice and commitment, and then confirmed in the national Constitution, which condenses the fundamental will and interests of the Chinese people. The process of Chinese Constitution establishment and the Constitution’s ideas and norms, both of them provide sufficient legal basis for the political legitimacy of the Communist Party of China. In that way, the continuation of the Communist Party of China’s political legitimacy-leadership and governance-must adhere to the rule of Constitution.

scholarly journals Nationalism

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Umut Özkırımlı
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Equal Citizenship

Nationalism is the belief that the interests and values of a particular nation are prior to, and often superior to, those of others. Etymologically, the origins of the term can be traced back to the Latin word natio, or “something born,” which was used by Romans to refer to a community of foreigners. It is commonly believed that in its modern sense of “love for a particular nation,” the term was first used in 1798. Nationalism refers to both an ideology and a political movement. In the context of the French Revolution, nationalism has come to be associated with the more inclusive idea of popular sovereignty based on shared and equal citizenship. Later, under the impact of German Romantic thought, it has also been connected to exclusivist notions of ethnic and cultural distinctiveness. As a political movement, nationalism has often entailed the fusion of these two ideals, presupposing a world composed of “nation-states” in which, at least in theory, each nation has a right to a state of its own, later called the principle of national self-determination. Nationalism has outlived the expectations of a great many thinkers, both on the right and the left, who predicted its imminent demise, and reasserted itself as a powerful tool for mobilization in the wake of the end of the Cold War, inspiring or energizing a vast array of political projects, from independentism and isolationism to authoritarianism and populism. Despite attempts to pool sovereignty in supranational or transnational bodies, mostly to counter the corrosive and uneven impact of globalization, nationalism remains the fundamental organizing principle of interstate order and the ultimate source of political legitimacy. For many, it is also the taken-for-granted context of everyday life and a readily available cognitive and discursive frame to make sense of the world that surrounds them.

Hegel's Politics: Liberal or Democratic?

1986 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay Drydyk
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
The State ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
Press Freedom ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
The French Revolution

It probably comes as a surprise to no one that Hegel's political philosophy is difficult to interpret. But his political thought clearly poses problems which the rest of his work does not (especially), and these problems arise from apparent political ambivalence on his part towards the French Revolution, towards monarchy, towards the doctrine of popular sovereignty, towards public opinion and press freedom - well, there is scarcely a reader of Hegel who could not add some additional topic to this already lengthy list. For instance, Hegel sometimes noted how crucial it is for a state to be decisive; every state needs a reservoir of decisiveness, supplied preferably by a monarch, who ‘has become the personality of the state,’ who ‘cuts short the weighing of the pros and cons between which it lets itself oscillate perpetually now this way and now that, and by saying “I will” make its decision and so inaugurates all activity and actuality.’

scholarly journals The topicality of the Theodor Adorno´s philosophy of education in the context of stable evelopment of open society

2018 ◽  
pp. 28-35
Author(s):  
Vitaliy Bryzhnik
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Social System ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
Main Element ◽  
The Political ◽  
Special Importance ◽  
Collective Consciousness ◽  
Open Society ◽  
Theodor Adorno

In this article was researched to the philosopher neo-marxist Theodor Adorno´s attitude to the phenomenon of public opinion in the context of his philosophical educational works. It was discovered that public opinion in the reality of a post-totalitarian society was falsified through the residual existence of a totalitarian ideology. This is caused by the irrational mood of the existing supporters of such ideologies that are negatively oriented towards democratic transformations in the post-totalitarian society and they foolishly wish to return to power a totalitarian political regime. Also, these moods receive support from media owners who were educated and upbringing during the previous political power of the supporters of totalitarian ideology. The factor that is set to fight this influence on the collective consciousness of this social system is the personal spirit of such a person who possesses knowledge of the political crimes of the previous totalitarian power. The joint and conscious actions of such people, who understand of special importance for society to the idea of democracy, are aimed at socio-cultural humanistic changes. These people are able to execute themselves to anti-ideological re-education and upbringing. The main element of these changes is the renewal of the educational process, the purpose of which is to raise the «political maturity» of the representative of the younger generation. He must be educated as an active participant to democratic transformations in a post-totalitarian country, which is the result of building up a real civil society. Also, a representative of democratic youth, along with other citizens, must prevent the repetition of political crimes of the previous totalitarian power.

The State Imperative

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Hayward
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
State Building ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Decline

This chapter argues that the pervasive sense of national decline among French public opinion can only be appreciated if it is judged against the elevated height of state self-esteem over previous centuries. Since the stabilization of the political regime in the second half of the twentieth century, the state has regressed as the overarching and unifying political framework, reversing its traditional standing. Now, many of the traditional state culture’s assumptions are no longer valid, creating a disjunction between expectations about what the state should do and what it can do. While those who speak on behalf of the state endeavor to sustain the myth of its sovereignty, their credibility has become increasingly implausible as the long process of state-building has been unwinding. Thus, France remains exceptional in terms of its norms and ideas about the state, even if it is no longer exceptional in terms of the behavior of the state.

Tocqueville and the Tyranny of the Majority

1966 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morton J. Horwitz
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Majority Rule ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
The Political ◽  
Alexis De Tocqueville ◽  
Great Work ◽  
Individual Liberty ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Tyranny Of The Majority

UNTIL the time Alexis de Tocqueville wrote Democracy in America, the problem of tyranny of the majority had dominated the political thought of no other nation as it had that of America. In the half century before the appearance of Tocqueville's great work, Americans had maintained a virtual monopoly of concern over the question of how popular sovereignty and individual liberty could peacefully coexist. The French Revolution, it is true, raised similar questions abroad, and if we take Burke's concern as representative, we see that he too was seriously troubled over the prospect that democratic tyranny would become the inevitable offspring of popular sovereignty. But despite Burke's eloquent and penetrating analysis, majority tyranny did not become a major preoccupation of English political thought, and to the extent that there was concern with the problem, as in the debate over the Reform Bill of 1832, discussion was confined to the obvious and straightforward issue of whether the suffrage should be extended. In America, on the other hand, the majority problem continued to be a persistent political issue from the beginning and, even today, a host of public questions revolves around the scope of majority rule. Yet for all the attention Americans paid to the majority question before Tocqueville entered upon the scene, they had hardly scratched the surface, and the Frenchman, therefore, was able to suggest an approach that they had not even considered.

Schumania and Spain’s Heavy-Industry Supply

2021 ◽  
pp. 31-51
Author(s):  
Fernando Guirao
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Democratic Consolidation ◽  
Standard Of Living ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Franco Regime ◽  
Francisco Franco ◽  
Social Modernization

The title of this book -The European Rescue of the Franco Regime- intends to draw the reader’s attention away from traditional narratives. The thesis widely sustained by scholars and reflected in public opinion is that the institutionalized pattern of European integration contributed to isolate and weaken the political regime that generalissimo Francisco Franco established after his victory in the Spanish Civil War (1936-9) and headed until his death in November 1975. In Spain, during the struggle for democracy under and immediately following Franco’s dictatorship, membership in the European Communities became emblematic of a collective desire for democratic consolidation and social modernization, as well as the fastest route to elevate the Spanish standard of living in line with Europe’s most advanced societies. This notion of the Europeanization of Spain has made it difficult to conceive the Spanish policy of the European Communities during the Franco era as anything other than a significant element in the combat against Francoism. It is indisputable that the Axis stigma prevented Francoist Spain’s membership to the European Communities. Yet the absence of membership constitutes neither the beginning nor the end, nor even the most important component of the story. From exclusion, a multiplicity of possibilities sprouted, including active support. Although the rescue concept emerged from the analysis of the Six, it could be extended to Franco Spain. The purpose of the Spanish EEC strategy was to generate material prosperity in Spain to maintain the dictatorship’s grip on the country, not to advance the arrival of democracy.

Metternich’s Europe

1998 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Sefton D. Temkin
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Foreign Minister ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
The Political ◽  
Napoleonic Wars ◽  
Ancien Regime ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Ancien Régime ◽  
The French Revolution

This chapter explores the childhood of Isaac Mayer Wise (1819–1900) and the political climate in which he had grown up. He was born in Steingrub, Bohemia in 1890. Of the first twenty-seven years of the man who said that he became a naturalized American amid these surroundings, very little is known, save that he was born into a fettered society; and its chains were heavier because they had been reimposed after a period of near freedom. The French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars had spread throughout Europe the aspiration for popular sovereignty and the rights of nationalities: the Congress of Vienna gave scant recognition to the new forces and set about restoring the ancien régime. The genius of those who set themselves to thwart the allied forces of liberalism and nationalism was Clemens von Metternich, Austrian Foreign Minister from 1809 till 1848. It was in the Austrian Empire where Wise lived that, despite Metternich’s awareness of the need for reform, his system operated to the worst effect.

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