Abstract
The emphasis in contemporary democratic theory and in the history of
political thought on the ‘natural rights’ theory of popular sovereignty of Locke,
precursors of which are found in the work of Hugo Grotius and others, obscures
an important relationship between constitutional self-government and nationalism.
Through an examination of the early political writings of Grotius, especially his
Antiquity of the Batavian Republic, this essay shows how a national consciousness
forged out of memories of native traditions of self-government, and stories of heroic
ancestors who successfully defended those traditions against usurpers and tyrants, gives
concrete substance to otherwise inchoate theories of constitutional self-government.