Regime change and the future of popular sovereignty

• Authors: Olearnik Szydłowska Paula
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Today the notion of popular sovereignty is seen as the standard of political legitimation. However, there is an important theoretical discussion to be had about the helpfulness of this notion since it is not clear who constitutes the ‘people’ or whether ‘the people’ possess the necessary agency in order to enact sovereignty. This discussion takes on practical interest in light of recent popular struggles for democracy, as evidenced by the Arab Spring of 2010-12 as well as the uprisings in Syria. This paper seeks to discover how far these popular revolutions of the early 21st century can be understood as conforming to or diverging from the liberal notion of popular sovereignty derived from the dominant social contract model.

Keywords

EN

regime change; popular sovereignty; the people; democratic legitimacy

• Publisher: Fundacja Instytut Nauki o Polityce
• Journal: Polish Journal of Political Science
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 2
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 103-117

Dates

published

2016

Contributors

author

Olearnik Szydłowska Paula

• Ignatianum University

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