The Anti-democratic Paradigm (Late 1630s–Early 1640s)

Abstract Chapter 6—like Chapter 1—focuses on a specific and decisive historical phase, the late 1630s to early 1640s, to assess the type of anti-democratic discourses that inundated the public sphere in an England on the verge of war. Besides illustrating the period’s particular context of unrest, and connecting anti-democratic ideas with the political events of the day (for example, the Protestation), this chapter casts light on some important continuities with the central decades of Elizabeth’s reign. It then elucidates how democracy was associated with the mission of urban petitioning ‘democrats’ (including the Independents), who were thought to have the upper hand over monarchy. Above all, it concentrates on some significant issues that, influenced by Hobbes’s reading of rhetoric and oratory, were portrayed as the backbone of democratic regimes. Most importantly, it deals with two pivotal shifts in the perception of democracy and its tyrannical character. First, the conflict between royalists and parliamentarians led the anti-democratic narrative to portray Parliament as a cradle of popular tyranny. Second, although democratic government remained a prominent target in political debates, the unprecedented popular ferment of the early 1640s stimulated a change. As a result, some people were prepared to acknowledge the legitimacy of democracy as a representative government grounded on parliamentary foundations and on the participation in politics of a limited number of rational people. This opening—which chiefly entailed the consolidation of popular sovereignty—still excluded the plebs, women, the monstrous many-headed multitude. To define their government, writers made increasing use of the highly disparaging, terror-soaked ‘ochlocracy’ (‘government of the rabble’).