The Populist Foundations of Democracy: A Conceptual History of "the People" [Folket] in the Constitutional Struggles in Denmark, 1830-1920

This article reconstructs and analyses the conceptual history of "the people"[Folket] in modern Danish history. It applies qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze new data and archival materials and provides a detailed study of the construction, development and central role of populist conceptions of "the people"in the constitutional struggles between 1830 and 1920 that transformed Denmark from an absolute monarchy into a parliamentary democracy. I argue that these populist conceptualizations of "the people"shaped and fostered the emergence of the ideas and practices of parliamentary democracy as "the people's rule"[Folkestyre]. This case study thereby challenges contemporary assumptions about an inherently adversarial relationship between populism and democracy. Moreover, it makes a number of empirical and analytical contributions to the existing historiography, as well as the literature on the construction of "the people,"democracy and populism.