Examines the concept of the people and the problems it raises for liberal democratic theory, constitutional theory, and critical theory. Argues that the people should be conceived not as simply a collection of individuals, but as an ongoing process unfolding in time.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Time of the People
1. The Mob and the People in Mexico: A Historical Example of the Indeterminacy of Popular Unification
2. A Problem in Liberal Democratic Theory: The Indeterminacy of Popular Unification
3. Mechanical and Teleological Conceptions of the People
4. Dynamic Constitutionalism and Historical Time
5. The People Between Change and Stability
6. Creative Freedom and the People as Process
7. A Democratic People as Process
Conclusion: Radical Realism
Bibliography
Index
—Rogers M. Smith, University of Pennsylvania
