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"This interdisciplinary volume re-examines a foundational principle of modern politics, popular sovereignty, which has come under pressure from deepening polarization and the global rise of authoritarian populism. Eighteen cutting-edge contributions from scholars and practitioners engage with the dilemmas of popular sovereignty through a variety of methodological approaches and comparative perspectives"--
List of contents
Introduction Ewa Atanassow, Thomas Bartscherer and David Bateman; Part I. 1. Plato and the problems of modern politics Thomas Bartscherer; 2. The sovereign and the tyrant: boundaries and violation in oedipus Elizabeth K. Markovits; 3. The fact of fiction: Popular sovereignty as belief and reality Ioannis D. Evrigenis; 4. Thomas hobbes and the making of popular sovereignty Richard Boyd; 5. Popular sovereignty on trial: Tocqueville vs Schmitt Ewa Atanassow; Part II. 6. 'As god rules the universe': reflections on the people and the state in early America Ira Katznelson; 7. The sovereign people and the liberal democratic state David A. Bateman; 8. Three vignettes: popular sovereignty in French history Daniella Sarnoff; 9. The founding of India and popular sovereignty Ornit Shani; 10. The 'other' boundary problem: fictions of popular sovereignty at the state's edge Matthew Longo; 11. The #BlackLivesMatter movement and black public opinion: a new populist divide in the black community? Alvin B. Tillery; 12. Popular sovereignty and recognition H. Abbie Erler; 13. Populism, popular sovereignty, and periphery Julia R. Azari and Alexis Nemecek; Part III. 14. The place of constitutional courts in regimes embracing popular sovereignty: recent problems in American Self-Governance Carol Nackenoff; 15. Popular sovereignty, populism, and stories of peoplehood Rogers M. Smith; 16. Popular Sovereignty in the Trump Era: a case study of pedagogy and practice Nicole Mellow and Andrew J. Perrin; 17. The voices of the people Adam Davis.
About the author
Ewa Atanassow is Professor of Political Thought at Bard College, Berlin. She is the author of Tocqueville's Dilemmas, and Ours: Sovereignty, Nationalism, Globalization (2022).Thomas Bartscherer is the Peter Sourian Senior Lecturer in the Humanities at Bard College. He is co-editor of the critical edition of Hannah Arendt's The Life of the Mind, Switching Codes: Thinking Through Digital Technology in the Humanities and Arts and Erotikon: Essay on Eros, Ancient and Modern.David A. Bateman is Associate Professor in Government and the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell University. He is the author Disenfranchising Democracy (2018) and co-author of Southern Nations (2018).
Summary
This volume re-examines popular sovereignty, a vital principle of modern politics jeopardized by deepening polarization and the global rise of authoritarian populism. Eighteen cutting-edge contributions from scholars and practitioners engage with the dilemmas of popular sovereignty through interdisciplinary approaches and perspectives.
Foreword
This volume reinvigorates the study of popular sovereignty in theory and practice, illuminating the meaning and future of liberal democracy.
