Open AccessFrom "De Facto King" to Peasants' Communes
Author(s) -
Piotr Kuligowski
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
contributions to the history of concepts
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.163
H-Index - 10
ISSN - 1807-9326
DOI - 10.3167/choc.2020.150106
Subject(s) - diaspora , representation (politics) , politics , de facto , emigration , conceptual history , period (music) , sociology , history , political science , ethnology , gender studies , law , aesthetics , philosophy
This article presents a conceptual history of representation in the political debates of the Polish émigré community in the period 1832–1846/48. As I argue, while the concept was present in the output of all political environments of the Polish Great Emigration, there were more discrepancies than similarities about how to understand it. As a result of debates about what the Polish diaspora in exile actually was and who had the right to represent it, the concept became a part and parcel of political frays. In this way, the right to use it—and consequently to represent the whole Polish community and Polish nation as well—occupied a central place in the evolution of the concept of representation.