Abstract

The article retraces the ancient concept of «concord» within the reflection on "homo democraticus" developed by political theorists during the twentieth century. Firstly, it advances a hypothesis on the conflictual origins of the theoretical analysis on concord. Secondly, it critically investigates the development of the notion of "homo democraticus" during the 1940s and 1950s, paying special attention to the legacy of «democratic elitism» as well as to the different hypotheses on civic culture which stemmed from the debate. The article argues that attempts at theorising "homo democraticus" and conceptualisations of concord do not have a merely descriptive function: they normally serve a political purpose.