Levellers”

The economic reduction of political equality in the Putney debates, 1647

Dados Bibliográficos

ID9239293
AutoresJeff D Bass (Baylor University, autor correspondente)
Ano1991
Volume77
Fascículo4
Páginas427-445
Data de publicação1991-11-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoQuarterly Journal of Speech (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0033-5630 • E-ISSN: 1479-5779
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00335639109383972
OpenAlexW2042419513
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas24

The Putney debates of 1647 between Puritan radicals and moderates within the New Model Army over political equality are a classic example of the de‐legitimation of demands for political change. The radicals sought to present their proposal for the institution of political equality as an extension of the consent theory of sovereignty that had been employed by Parliament to justify resistance to Charles I. The moderates’ response to this strategy was to reduce the idea of political equality from the level of a religiously‐grounded civil right to that of an economic liability that would plunge society into chaos. This reduction facilitated the ability of the upper classes to “misname” the radicals as self‐interested “Levellers” of all person's estates. The radicals’ inability to refute this charge stigmatized their proposals as irresponsible and irreparably damaged their ethos

Ethos · Institution · Law and economics · Legitimation · Parliament · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sovereignty · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Law · Literature: history, themes, analysis · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity