Abstract
This chapter traces the development of the recall in the history of political philosophy from the Roman Republic to present-day republican thought. The chapter outlines how the institution was discussed by Karl Marx before it became an integral part of the political doctrines of respectively Vladimir Lenin and Antonio Gramsci, how the recall was championed by American centre-left progressives and how the institution was paradoxically utilised by Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.
I am grateful to Laurence Whitehead and Yanina Welp for their helpful suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies.
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Notes
- 1.
The law targeted Cicero in person. His political career was based on his success as prosecutor of individual officeholders for misconduct. He then wrote The Laws clarifying that whereas prosecutors must act on individual cases, all laws should be impersonal. That was his lasting contribution to our concept of the ‘rule of law’.
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Legal Cases:
Hilzinger v. Gillman 56 Washington 228 (Washington Supreme Court 1909), 233.
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Qvortrup, M. (2020). The Political Theory of the Recall. A Study in the History of the Ideas. In: Welp, Y., Whitehead, L. (eds) The Politics of Recall Elections. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37610-9_3
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