Prehistory of populist constitutionalism
| Cite this page: Jason Koutoufaris-Malandrinos, “Prehistory of populist constitutionalism”, Archiopedia / Αρχειοπαίδεια (July 2023), p. 375 (revision #-), ISSN 2732-6012. DOI: To be assigned. Note: This entry is part of a research work that is supported by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (H.F.R.I.) under “First Call for H.F.R.I. Research Projects to support Faculty members and Researchers and the procurement of high-cost research equipment grant” (Project Number: HFRI-FM17-1502). |
Long before the coining of the terms populist constitutionalism, popular constitutionalism, and constitutional populism, jurists as well as political actors and thinkers had already explored the ideas and policies that are usually associated with this concept: criticism of the separation of law and politics, anti-elitism, anti-institutionalism (anti-establisment), anti-pluralism, illiberalism, popular sovereignty, direct democracy, authentic popular representation, extreme majoritarianism, strong leadership, personification of power, strengthening of executive power, instrumentalization of law.
Aristotle
If “the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato”,[1] the most accurate assessment of the contemporary literature on populism would be that it is paraphrasing Aristotle – casually, wordily and –more or less– obliviously. But is it not better to seek the fountains than to follow the rivulets? The key element of populism (the distinction between the people and the elite) and the central point of populist constitutionalism (popular sovereignty taken to its conclusion) are already discussed in Aristotle’s Politics.
How different is a present-day right-wing populist from Cleon, “the most violent man at Athens”,[2] who “was the first person to use bawling and abuse on the platform, and to gird up his cloak before making a public speech, all other persons speaking in orderly fashion”?[3] And can we not trace contemporary left-wing “inclusionary” populist support for marginalized groups (including immigrants) and cultural pluralism back to the ancient demagogues who, “with a view to [...] making the people powerful”, admitted “to citizenship not only the legitimate children of citizens but also the base-born and those of citizen-birth on one side”, employed “every device” to make “all the people as much as possible intermingled with one another, and to break up the previously existing groups of associates” and promoted “licence among slaves [...] and among women and children, and indulgence to live as one likes”? [4]
Of course, the Philosopher himself exhibited populist tendencies occasionally. The following passage is revealing:
μᾶλλον ἀδιάφθορον τὸ πολύ - καθάπερ ὕδωρ τὸ πλεῖον, οὕτω καὶ τὸ πλῆθος τῶν ὀλίγων ἀδιαφθορώτερον.[5]
Translation:
The multitude is more incorruptible - just as the larger stream of water is purer, so the mass of citizens is less corruptible than the few.[6]
Maximilien Robespierre
Toute institution qui ne suppose pas le peuple bon, et le magistrat corruptible, est vicieuse.[7]
Translation:
Every institution which does not suppose the people good and the magistrate corruptible, is wrong.[8]
Alexis de Tocqueville
.[9]
Translation:
[T]he judicial power [...] slows, it cannot stop the people, because the latter by changing the constitution can always arrive at what they desire.[10]
Theodore Roosevelt
[T]he majority of the plain people of the U.S. will, day in and day out, make fewer mistakes in governing themselves than any smaller class or body of men, no matter what their training, will make in trying to govern them.[11]
Eleftherios Venizelos
[Ε]ίναι αίρεσις να λέτε μέσα εις ένα Πολιτικόν Σώμα ότι ο καθηγητής του Πανεπιστημίου ημπορεί να έχη την εγκυροτέραν γνώμην εις ένα ζήτημα από όλους.[12]
Translation:
.[13]
Θα εκύτταζα [...] να καταργήσω την έδραν του Συνταγματικού Δικαίου δια να αποτρέψω τον κίνδυνον [...] να εξαρτάται η πολιτική ζωή της Χώρας από την γνώμην ενός καθηγητού, σοφού όσον θέλετε.[14]
Translation:
.[15]
Notes
- ↑ Alfred North Whithead, Process and Reality: An essay in cosmology, New York: The Free Press, 1978, p. 39.
- ↑ Thuc. 3.36.6 = Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, London: J. M. Dent, 1910.
- ↑ Aristot. Const. Ath. 28.3 = Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 20, translated by H. Rackham, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1952.)
- ↑ Aristot. Pol. 6.1319b = Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 21, translated by H. Rackham, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1944.
- ↑ Aristotle, Politics, 1286a.
- ↑ .
- ↑ .
- ↑ .
- ↑ .
- ↑ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. Historical-Critical Edition of De la démocratie en Amérique, ed. Eduardo Nolla, Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2010, p. 167 (note b).
- ↑ .
- ↑ .
- ↑ The translation is by the author.
- ↑ .
- ↑ The translation is by the author.