The Plebeian Experience: A Discontinuous History of Political FreedomHow do “people” (or “plebs”) excluded from political institutions achieve political agency? Revisiting a series of marginal events, Martin Breaugh identifies fleeting yet decisive instances of emancipation in which the people took it upon themselves to become political subjects. Emerging during the Roman plebs’s first secession in 494 B.C.E., the “plebeian” experience consists of an “underground” or unexplored configuration of political strategies to obtain political freedom, a political practice that rejects domination and, by means of concerted action, establishes an alternative form of power. Breaugh’s study concludes in the nineteenth century and integrates ideas from sociology, philosophy, history, and political science. Organized around diverse case studies, his text is designed for class use and showcases the exchange between history and ideas that modifies the understanding and use of theoretical concepts over time. The plebeian experience also describes a recurring phenomenon scholars can use to clarify struggles for emancipation throughout history, expanding research into the political agency of the many and other cutting-edge concerns. |
Contents
the question of the forms | 103 |
3 | 112 |
The London Corresponding Society and the English Jacobins | 142 |
The Paris Commune of 1871 and the Communards | 173 |
the nature of the human bond | 199 |
A Political Bond of Fraternity | 205 |
A Political Bond of Plurality | 218 |
A Political Bond ofAssociation | 230 |
Conclusion | 241 |
| 283 | |
| 301 | |
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The Plebeian Experience: A Discontinuous History of Political Freedom Martin Breaugh Limited preview - 2013 |
Common terms and phrases
Albert Soboul analysis Aventine Hill Ballanche Ballanche’s bourgeois bourgeoisie carnival central century Ciompi citizens Claude Lefort Committee communalist Communards Commune’s conflict Constitution Daniel Guérin democracy democratic desire Discourses domination E. P. Thompson economic emancipation English Jacobins Enragés ensure equality established existence Florentine form of political Foucault fraternity French Revolution Girondins Guérin Hence human bond Ibid idea insurrection Jacques Rancière Lando leader Lefrançais Leon liberty litical Lowenthal Machiavelli Marx Masaniello Miguel Abensour modern Montesquieu National Niccolò Machiavelli originary division Paris Commune Parisian participation patricians people’s philosophy Pierre-Simon Ballanche plebeian experience plebeian political plebeian principle plebeian secession plurality political action political bond political experience political freedom political practice popular movement proletarian question radical Rancière’s regime relationship representative role Roman Republic Rome Rome’s Rousseau’s sans-culottes sectional societies servitude Soboul social bond specific sphere struggle Thompson tion tradition trans transformation translation University Press Vico violence workers