People and State Form: Identity and Representation

Abstract

Who and what are the people that hold constituent power? With the establishing of constituent power of the people as the fundamental principle on which constitutional orders is built, this, of course, becomes a central question. I will take a closer look at some understandings of ‘the people’ in this chapter by taking the lead from Schmitt (1928: § 16–18), who focused on two basic conceptions of the people related to the modern state-form: identity and representation. These are both opposing and mutually related principles for Schmitt; opposing in the sense that they bring out different conceptions of the people but dependent on each other dynamically (in their interplay) as they are both forms of the state. For Schmitt, both identity and representation depend on the modern state form. It is this form that allows people to be conceived of as a unity.