Democratic leveling rhetoric can cloak transfer of sovereignty to one man

Evidence

Thus, the—purportedly—democratic leveling was carried so far that the higher as well as the lower status groups were disfranchised, and only the ideal entity of “the people as a whole” remained. Opponents soon declared that this newly discovered concept of “the people” served only to transfer “the people’s” unlimited sovereignty to a single man. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 672

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Responsibility-to-Protect discourse shifted sovereignty from nations to individuals; Equal-lives rhetoric masks a new hierarchy between nationals and foreigners; Feminist rhetoric can function as a tool of imperial and nationalist agendas (+5 more)

Related

• Popular sovereignty can itself become a collective tyranny indistinguishable from a single tyrant (similarity 0.83)
• Modernity generated multiple concepts of sovereignty beyond the democratic norm-producing demos. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• States gain global influence only by surrendering some sovereignty #qualifies (0.75) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 183
• Equal-lives rhetoric masks a new hierarchy between nationals and foreigners #exemplifies (0.55)
• Responsibility-to-Protect discourse shifted sovereignty from nations to individuals #expands (0.50)
• Feminist rhetoric can function as a tool of imperial and nationalist agendas #expands (0.50)