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Can Popular Sovereignty Be Represented? Jacobinism from Radical Democracy to Populism
Author(s) -
Rousselière Geneviève
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
american journal of political science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.347
H-Index - 170
eISSN - 1540-5907
pISSN - 0092-5853
DOI - 10.1111/ajps.12600
Subject(s) - populism , democracy , popular sovereignty , sovereignty , political science , political economy , order (exchange) , law , sociology , politics , economics , finance
Abstract Contemporary studies mostly understand populism as a reaction to the failures of representative liberal democracies. Yet populism existed at the very inception of modern democracy before it became liberal. I contend that, during the French Revolution, conflicting claims of popular sovereignty gave rise to populism, which was instantiated in the Jacobin theory of Robespierre. The rapid transformation of Jacobinism in the years of the attempted birth of modern democracy (1789–94) tracks the theoretical question at the heart of populism: How can sovereignty be represented for a divided people that have yet to be united in order to exist?