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That said, a plethora of problems arise when this theory is taken to extremes in defense of a government where popularity is the supreme value. Otherwise, the society will consist of subjects rather than citizens and this has never been conducive to the protection of rights. Some form of social contract must be accepted, whether it be expressly or tacitly. Undoubtedly, this requires that government takes on some democratic features and that mechanisms exist for the public to resist overreach through an electoral process or popular vote. This idea is rooted in the political thought of John Locke and Algernon Sidney, who were both ardently opposed to any form of government that was founded through “violence or fraud,” which is the opposite of consent in a political context.

While there were an abundance of intellectual influences ranging from the Enlightenment thinkers to the Ancients that animated the Revolution’s intellectual leaders, an idea that seemed to unite these leaders was the necessity of public consent for government to be legitimate. Regardless, the monarchical British government that controlled the territory ensured that none of this sentiment could amount to much as far as political reform until after the American Revolution. Popular movements in the colonies were often based on social divisions regarding socioeconomic class, geography, and race, and commonly resulted in deadly violence. The Issue of Consent and Aristocratic Government in Political ThoughtĪs mentioned in the introduction, populist sentiment was a factor in American politics long before the United States won its independence from Great Britain. This is neither sustainable or desirable, and I will argue that the only way to prevent this cycle and a descension into tyranny is the maintenance of respected institutions, a virtuous political elite, and sturdy constitutional protections of individual liberty. The result of this is a political culture that exists in an oxymoronic state of hyper democratic impulse and bureaucratic control. Furthermore, populist waves and unrestrained democratic sentiment often create technocratic institutions, as this is the only way to fulfill the desire for constant state action. Furthermore, I will also analyze several cases of American populist movements and examine their philosophical roots and practical outcomes through the lens of the theorists mentioned. In order to make this argument, I will rely heavily on the political thought of Alexis de Tocqueville, Charles de Montesquieu, and the American Framers along with modern interpretations of their work. This type of system, combined with necessary legal guarantees of rights, is far superior to others at ensuring the stable operation of government according to higher principles. Rather than a representative democracy or a democratic republic, the original Constitution formed an aristocratic republic with some democratic institutions. Because of this, populism, anti-elitism, and the push for a hyper democratic state pose an enormous threat to the republican nature of the United State’s constitutional structure, which inevitably puts individual liberty at risk. Like designing infrastructure requires expertise in the field of engineering and performing surgery requires expertise in medicine, the act of governing requires a degree of political expertise and philosophical coherence that is lacking in popular movements. However, when held up to scrutiny, such arguments often hold little weight.

This sentiment is understandably attractive to those parts of the electorate that are struggling to adjust to economic change, social change, or any combination of the two and are in search of a scapegoat. For example, Andrew Jackson’s speeches hailing “the virtue and sovereignty of the people” bear a striking resemblance to the words of Donald Trump’s inaugural address, where he promised to work on behalf of the “righteous public” and “the forgotten men and women” who had, according to Trump, been maliciously abandoned by the ruling class. Throughout American history, the arguments made by instigators and adherents of these types of movements have been remarkably similar. While the historical and ideological contexts of these movements vary wildly, their essence is always the desire to shift political power away from some class of elites and into the hands of a larger group of common people. Populist waves have been a constant in American politics at least since the Jacksonian era of the early nineteenth century, and traces of populist sentiment can be detected as far back Bacon’s Rebellion in colonial Virginia.