The role of «The People» at Political Constitution in Hegel’s thinking of European Restoration

Abstract

The aim of this article is to study the concept of «political constitution» as it is exposed in Hegel’s Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1821). In this work constitution is thought as an organismin permanent self-formation. After Hegel the «people» is a creation of abstract understanding that, as aconsequence, must be excluded of political constitution. We will interpret this exclusion in the contextof the movement from French Revolution to Conservative European Restoration as it is thought in Hegel’s system. For that goal, we will use the notion of «passive revolution» in order to discern if the historical deployment of Hegelian logic necessarily drives into a mere reform of hegemonical order or if, on thecontrary, allows the conceive the possibility of Revolution. Indeed, we will try to show than the revolutionary readings of Hegel’s philosophy, as Gramsci’s, finally are equally exclusive in relation to «people» politicalrole. Finally, we will try to point philosophical issues to this problem.