Political reform projects reconstruct idealized historical models to legitimate limits on power

Evidence

Hotman’s discourse is important because it established what would doubtless become a definitive link between the project of restricting royal absolutism and the rediscovery, in the past, of a certain specific historical model which at some moment established the reciprocal rights of the king and his people, and which was subsequently forgotten and violated. In the sixteenth century a connection began to be established among restricting the right of the monarchy, reconstructing a past model, and reviving a basic but forgotten constitution; these are, | think, the things that are brought together in Hotman’s discourse, and not a dualism. — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 137

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to how the Islamophobia field reads similar ‘golden age’ narratives that reconstruct idealized pasts to ground contemporary political claims. — connects to: Historical narratives function as disguised lessons in constitutional law — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 141; Holding history against human essence yields a categorical demand for total revolution over reform — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 421

Broader Connections

• Historical narratives function as disguised lessons in constitutional law #corroborates (0.75) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 141