Mark Hewitson
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198208587
- eISBN:
- 9780191678073
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198208587.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter looks at the connection between parliamentarism and universal suffrage, and the alleged consequences of that connection. It focuses on the difficulty of checking popularly elected and ...
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This chapter looks at the connection between parliamentarism and universal suffrage, and the alleged consequences of that connection. It focuses on the difficulty of checking popularly elected and legitimized ministries, together with associated dangers such as corruption, demagogy, and dictatorship. The diversity of German reactions to the French electorate was marked. Unsurprisingly, much of the right opposed the idea of universal suffrage altogether. It was argued that part of the populace in France, as elsewhere, was uneducated and ill-informed. The main charge against direct, universal suffrage in France, where it stood virtually unchallenged, in contrast to Germany, where restricted federal and municipal franchises continued to limit its effect, was that it rested on an unstable and impressionable electorate.Less
This chapter looks at the connection between parliamentarism and universal suffrage, and the alleged consequences of that connection. It focuses on the difficulty of checking popularly elected and legitimized ministries, together with associated dangers such as corruption, demagogy, and dictatorship. The diversity of German reactions to the French electorate was marked. Unsurprisingly, much of the right opposed the idea of universal suffrage altogether. It was argued that part of the populace in France, as elsewhere, was uneducated and ill-informed. The main charge against direct, universal suffrage in France, where it stood virtually unchallenged, in contrast to Germany, where restricted federal and municipal franchises continued to limit its effect, was that it rested on an unstable and impressionable electorate.
Paolo Pombeni
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199600670
- eISBN:
- 9780191738203
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199600670.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Are political parties an unavoidable component of liberal constitutionalism? A historical enquiry shows us how troubled was the perception of political parties among Western European liberals. In the ...
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Are political parties an unavoidable component of liberal constitutionalism? A historical enquiry shows us how troubled was the perception of political parties among Western European liberals. In the mid nineteenth century, the understanding of them as inheritors of classical ‘demagogy’ was still competing with the Burkeian idea of parties as ‘honourable connexions’. What changed in subsequent years was the expansion of the franchise and the realization that what counted in politics was numbers not brains. A realistic approach then prevailed, which understood a constitution as a means of organized access to power based on popular consent. This raised the problems of ‘disciplining’ the popular vote, and parties became seen as a tool to organize democracy. After the Second World War, a party-based democracy became the accepted norm in Western Europe, but parties now transformed themselves from ‘Weltanschaaung’ into ‘catch-all’ parties.Less
Are political parties an unavoidable component of liberal constitutionalism? A historical enquiry shows us how troubled was the perception of political parties among Western European liberals. In the mid nineteenth century, the understanding of them as inheritors of classical ‘demagogy’ was still competing with the Burkeian idea of parties as ‘honourable connexions’. What changed in subsequent years was the expansion of the franchise and the realization that what counted in politics was numbers not brains. A realistic approach then prevailed, which understood a constitution as a means of organized access to power based on popular consent. This raised the problems of ‘disciplining’ the popular vote, and parties became seen as a tool to organize democracy. After the Second World War, a party-based democracy became the accepted norm in Western Europe, but parties now transformed themselves from ‘Weltanschaaung’ into ‘catch-all’ parties.
Cinzia Arruzza
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- October 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190678852
- eISBN:
- 9780190678883
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190678852.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter addresses the question of the identity of the historical figure depicted by Plato’s tyrant, and rules out that Plato’s main inspiration and referent was an actual tyrant. Contra such ...
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This chapter addresses the question of the identity of the historical figure depicted by Plato’s tyrant, and rules out that Plato’s main inspiration and referent was an actual tyrant. Contra such suppositions, the chapter emphasizes the conventional elements of Plato’s description and shows its appropriation of preexisting characterizations of tyrannies and tyrants in Greek literature. Plato’s adoption of these literary tropes reflects an argumentative strategy best understood by referring to their function in democratic self-understanding. Plato adopts these tropes to subvert democratic discourse, arguing that tyranny is democracy’s natural derivation rather than its polar opposite. Thus, Plato’s diagnosis of tyranny can be better understood as an intervention in a debate concerning the transformation of the relation between political leaders and the demos in Athenian democracy and the crisis of democracy in the last years of the fifth century, foreshadowed by the dramatic setting of the dialogue.Less
This chapter addresses the question of the identity of the historical figure depicted by Plato’s tyrant, and rules out that Plato’s main inspiration and referent was an actual tyrant. Contra such suppositions, the chapter emphasizes the conventional elements of Plato’s description and shows its appropriation of preexisting characterizations of tyrannies and tyrants in Greek literature. Plato’s adoption of these literary tropes reflects an argumentative strategy best understood by referring to their function in democratic self-understanding. Plato adopts these tropes to subvert democratic discourse, arguing that tyranny is democracy’s natural derivation rather than its polar opposite. Thus, Plato’s diagnosis of tyranny can be better understood as an intervention in a debate concerning the transformation of the relation between political leaders and the demos in Athenian democracy and the crisis of democracy in the last years of the fifth century, foreshadowed by the dramatic setting of the dialogue.
