Compromise and the People’s Two Bodies

Abstract

Inspired by the late medieval doctrine of the King’s Two Bodies, the dual understanding of “the people,” both as a multitude and as a corporate whole, enjoys a long pedigree in the history of political thought. This chapter connects different apprehensions of the people with different attitudes toward compromise. The first part traces back to the medieval times the connection between compromise and the dual understanding of the people—as a corporation hierarchically ordered, on the one hand, and as an untrustworthy multitude, on the other one. Yet starting with early modernity, this second understanding of the people as a multitude of equal individuals enjoyed a drastic reconsideration. As the second part of the chapter shows, thanks to the Puritan bi-dimensional covenant, in the New World the idea of equal individuals consenting to form a new political body was far from being a mere philosophical idea. It became a living reality. At the same time, once this body was formed as a corporation the details of setting up a specific form of government and its daily running was trusted in the hands of an elected aristocracy of merit. As a result, the American founding was shaped by a dual apprehension of the people and an ambivalent attitude toward compromise. In the concluding remarks, I argue that these historical lessons, properly understood, remain relevant for many contemporary challenges, not just in the USA, but all across the world.