Agents of the people [[electronic resource] ] : democracy and popular sovereignty in British and Swedish parliamentary and public debates, 1734-1800 / / by Pasi Ihalainen

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910785266303321
• Autore: Ihalainen Pasi
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Leiden ; ; Boston, : Brill, 2010
• ISBN: 1-282-78688-1; 9786612786884; 90-04-18394-9
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (546 p.)
• Collana: Studies in the history of political thought, , 1873-6548 ; ; v. 4
• Disciplina: 321.8
• Soggetti: Representative government and representation - Great Britain - History - 18th century; Representative government and representation - Sweden - History - 18th century; Great Britain Politics and government 18th century; Sweden Politics and government 18th century
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. [497]-515) and indexes.
• Nota di contenuto: Preliminary Material / P. Ihalainen -- Introduction / P. Ihalainen -- Chapter One. British And Swedish Parliamentary Debates In A Comparative Study Of Political Vocabularies / P. Ihalainen -- Chapter Two. Variations In British Parliamentary Conceptions Of The People, 1734–1771 / P. Ihalainen -- Chapter Three. The Swedish Case: Did Popular Sovereignty And Representative Democracy Exist In Sweden Before 1772? / P. Ihalainen -- Chapter Four. The Re-Evaluation Of The Representation Of The People And Democracy In Westminster, 1772–1789 / P. Ihalainen -- Chapter Five. Reactions To The Revolutionary Concepts Of Democracy And Popular Sovereignty In Westminster, 1789–1800 / P. Ihalainen -- Conclusion / P. Ihalainen -- Bibliography / P. Ihalainen -- Index Of Persons / P. Ihalainen -- Index Of Subjects / P. Ihalainen.
• Sommario/riassunto: This book on the pre-history of democratization shows how and why more modern attitudes to democracy started to emerge in the late ; eighteenth century. Focusing on the language of parliamentarians, the author reconstructs and compares debates on the political role and representation of the people in Britain and Sweden. His analysis demonstrates not only the persistence of the classical, pejorative, conception of democracy but also the gradual re-evaluation of the notion prior to the French Revolution. The author analyses the clash between British and French conceptions of democracy as well as the first definitions of the sovereignty of Parliament as the sovereignty of the people. Furthermore, by placing parliamentary discourse in the context of public debates, he reveals the previously ignored role that parliaments played in redefining the most crucial concepts in Western political theory.