"The idea that genuine leftism must rely on the spontaneity of the masses is not new. It was the idea of certain left-wing socialists and Communists more than a century ago such as Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg in Germany, of Georges Sorel in France, and of the anarchists whom George Orwell encountered during the Spanish Civil War. None of those thinkers or movements, however, scored any significant successes." DK
There were a couple of states, nevertheless, where this idea was a huge success.
It was a founding principle for the American Constitution.
'We the people'...the idea underpinned the Philadelphia Convention, violating their own mandates for the Convention from their respective states.
Although the Constitution itself was not ultimately structured that way, it relied on the principle for its legitimacy, and was considered a limitation on the ultimate authority of the whole people.
It had also been the mode of action of the second French Revolution, of 1792, the revolution of the sans culottes. It resulted in the Terror, and ended in 1794.
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