L'idea di popolo in Hegel

This essay considers the main occurrences of the word "people" (Volk) in Hegel's Elements of the Philosohpy of Right (1820). It emphasizes that Hegel's criticism of popular sovereignty must be placed against the backround of the post-revolutionary debate about ancient or modern liberty; similarly, his apparent dislike for constitutional parliamentarianism is influenced by coeval German discussions on the residual validity of an estates-based (ständisch) representation and on the growing prerogatives of so-called "public opinion" (öffentliche Meinung). "People" and "State" prove to be two strictly inter-related concepts in Hegel's political philosophy, in contrast to evil sounding terms such "moltitude" (Menghe), "crowd" (Haufen), "mass" (Masse), "mob" (Pöbel), which recall a condition of despotism or anarchy. From an Hegelian point of view, every attempt to give an answer to the serious questions provoked today by the emergence of old and new forms of "populism", or "demagogy", cannot have success without a renewed reflection about the extent and the aims of State sovereignty, enlarged on subcontinental scale.