Volume 39, Number 8 · April 23, 1992
The Fiction of 'The People'
By Edmund S. Morgan
We the People: Vol. I, Foundations
by Bruce Ackerman
Harvard University Press (Belknap Press), 369 pp., $24.95
Vox populi vox dei: the voice of the people is the voice of God. The slogan was useful for those who first attempted to substitute the people for God as the source of political authority. Their attempt was ultimately so successful that God no longer seems to be needed in government, except perhaps in invocations designed to bolster morale during particularly dubious activities. Most of the time the people alone can give government all the authority it needs. But the substitution has left those who govern with a continuing problem of authentication.
Review, 3940 words
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