The Coppet circle: public opinion and the modern state

In his seminal essay, «Public Opinion as Political Invention» Keith Baker assigns the concept of public opinion a central, though «relatively fleeting» place in the history of French political discourse. For Baker, public opinion had, by the eve of the Revolution, become the «articulating concept of a new public space with legitimacy and authority apart from the Crown». On Baker’s account, the idea of public opinion opened the way to revolution, but did not survive the assaults inflicted by i..