Collective
The Demos
Explore in the Atlas →The people understood as the collective body that holds sovereign political authority — the 'demos' of democracy. Distinct from the institution of the nation-state, the demos is the imagined sovereign agent invoked by popular sovereignty and the autonomy project: the collectivity that, in principle, institutes and can reinstitute its own laws. It is staged architecturally in assemblies, agoras and the spaces where 'the people' are convened to decide.
Collectivity Autonomy Power
Classifications
- Holder
- Communal intergenerational
- Source of authority
- Reason
- Subject
- Human centred
- Political position
- Subaltern resistant
- Degree of codification
- Protocol performed
- Mode of transmission
- Oral song embodied
- Knowledge type
- Relational embodied
- Epistemic cluster
- Western philosophical
Connections
- institutes The Nation-State
Referenced by
- Cornelius Castoriadis associated with
- Charles Taylor associated with
Sources
- n.d..
- n.d..
- Hansen, Mogens Herman. The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes: Structure, Principles and Ideology. Blackwell, 1991.
Cite this entry
First published May 2026Last revised Jul 2026
CLAD. "The Demos." Atlas of Architectural Thought. CLAD, 2026. https://www.cl-ad.com.au/research/atlas/collective/the-demos/. Accessed July 17, 2026.