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Markku Peltonen, de University of Helsinki, présentera sa communication « Democracy in the English Revolution », le jeudi 25 octobre 2018 de 17h30 à 19h. Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, 75006, salle D421.The aim of the paper is toexamine the debate about democracy during the English Republic. Historians,when studying democracy in the 1640s and 1650s, have mainly focused on theLevellers, but my paper explores the period of the English Republic (1649-53),when, I seek to argue, democracy was openly advocated. When the monarchy andthe House of Lords were abolished in March 1649, England, being ruled by theHouse of Commons (or what was left of it), became a democracy of a sort. Thisprompted several pamphleteers, defending the Republic and its Engagement (actwhich demanded all adult males to declare loyalty to the Republic), not only toexplore the themes of democracy but also to defend democracy as the best formof government. The constitutional debate of the English Republic, I suggest,was amongst the most wide-ranging discussions of democracy in early-modernEurope. The paper argues that this was one of the only times in the history ofEuropean political thought before the eighteenth century that democracy wasbeing discussed in highly positive terms, and perhaps the first time thatdemocracy was interpreted in representative terms.Markku Peltonen isan Academy Research Professor and Professor of History at the University ofHelsinki. His main research interest lies in the history of early-modernpolitical thought, on which he has published three monographs Classical Humanism and Republicanism in English Political Thought1570–1640 (1995), The Duel in Early Modern England: Civility,Politeness and Honour (2003) Rhetoric, Politics and Popularity inPre-Revolutionary England, (2013) all published by CUP. He has edited The Cambridge Companion to Bacon (1996) and has numerous scholarlyarticles and chapters in print. His current research project is onrepublicanism, democracy and political accountability in Revolutionary England.Discutant : Cesare Cuttica (Université Paris 8) Contact :Sandrine Parageau (sparageau@parisnanterre.fr)