Plebiscites on the Streets: The Politics of Public Acclamation in Early Nineteenth-Century Europe
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Theo Jung [1]
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[1] Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg
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- Localización: Popular Agency and Politicisation in Nineteenth-Century Europe: Beyond the Vote / Oriol Luján Feliu (ed. lit.), Diego Palacios Cerezales (ed. lit.), 2023, ISBN 978-3-031-13519-4, págs. 15-36
- Idioma: inglés
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Resumen
While acclamations remain a familiar phenomenon today, they tend to be understood as an atmospheric, rather than a functional, element of political life. In consequence, the historical variability of their practice and impact remains understudied. Building on a short survey of current research, this contribution addresses the forms, functions, and situations of acclamation in Europe during the Age of Revolutions. Focusing on the tensions between the practice’s symbolic holism—suggesting a direct expression of the communities’ undivided will—and its underlying complexities as a mode of collective action, it argues that acclamations gained a historically unique impact during the (post-)revolutionary period. While other opportunities for political articulation and participation remained sharply constrained, these public vocalizations presented one of the very few available modes of regular political engagement. At the same time, public interactions between rulers and ‘the people’ gained new performative significance against the background of experiences of political upheaval and regime change. A consideration of a wide range of case studies from across the continent shows how practices of acclamation and their reception became part of a transnationally entangled contestation of political legitimacy, constituting an ephemeral, but momentous mode of popular politics.
