Before the multitude, the people, the working masses and the colonized subalterns, there is the plebs. It politically emerges under the Roman Republic, at the same time as the demos is asserting itself in Athens. Unlike the demos, the plebs is a political actor whose principles and practices remain unknown. The inaugural scene of the “plebeian experience” is the secession of the plebs in 494 BC: the retreat to the Aventine. To thwart patrician dominance, migrants, undocumented individuals, the poor, and all the excluded members that make up the plebs leave Rome to settle on the Aventine hill. Instead of appointing leaders, the plebs give themselves names and ancestors, rituals, and institutions. This way, they access public discourse and symbolic inscription in the order of the city. Before this founding event, the existence of the plebeians was infra-political. After that, they assert themselves as citizens. A discontinuous history of political liberty arises from this experience of radical democracy. A “rebellious” political tradition takes shape, according to Miguel Abensour, or even an underground one, conceptualized by Machiavelli but also by Vico, Montesquieu, and Ballanche. Three characteristics distinguish it: communalism, agoraphilia, and its own temporality, the “breach,” in the sense of Arendt, meaning an eventful eruption that temporarily disrupts the order of domination. Martin Breaugh brings to life the history of this “plebeian principle” through a deep reflection on the access of the masses to political action. He discovers another understanding of democracy as an experience of emancipation that intertwines revolt and freedom, revolution and democracy, utopia and emancipation within popular political practices.
Context: The article discusses the historical emergence of the plebeians as a political force and their significance in the context of democracy and liberation.
Fact Check: The author of the article, Martin Breaugh, is a political theory professor at York University in Canada and has contributed to several academic works related to political philosophy.
