Abstract

This essay advances an interpretation of key moments of Thomas Robert Malthus’ theoretical and political production in light of the historical and conceptual problem represented by the public presence of the people in the aftermath of the late 18th century’s revolutionary turn. It is argued that the principle of population is the Malthusian response to the danger posed by the popular classes: by establishing both the natural subjection of the majority of the population to need, and the indifference of political and social rights to that condition, the principle of population both poses limits to the politics of the people and defines which movements make them a formless «mob». The Malthusian principle thereby claims to regulate the tension between «part» and «whole» that constitutes the concept of the people in this historical turning point; then, its revival in the 1830s by Francis Place shows the persistence of a dispute around the relationship between order and integration that runs through the modern genesis of the people-democracy nexus