BOOK REVIEW SYMPOSIUM PEOPLE, SOVEREIGNTY AND CITIZENSHIP: THE ETHNONATIONAL POPULISTS’ CONSTITUTIONAL VOCABULARY KRISZTA KOVÁCS * Introduction........................................................................................................... 389 Populism ............................................................................................................... 389 People and Sovereignty ........................................................................................ 390 Citizenship ............................................................................................................ 392 INTRODUCTION Constitution and citizenship are two giant and contested concepts of constitutional law literature. Jo Shaw’s contribution to the debate on the understanding of these terms is erudite. Her book, The People in Question makes clear that citizenship and constitutions interact; hence, it discusses the core constitutional concepts of the people and sovereignty because ‘it is practically impossible to imagine citizenship… without also considering the relevance of fundamental ideas about “the people”’. 1 It is especially true when we want to understand what Shaw calls the ‘populist challenge to constitutional citizenship’. 2 This commentary concentrates on this populist challenge and makes three points. The first relates to populism; the second concerns the way populists apply constitutional vocabulary, including the concept of the people and sovereignty. Finally, the third point focuses on one of the populists’ favourite citizenship policies, external ethnic citizenship. 2F POPULISM Anti-democratic forces are in government all around the world, even in Europe, which proudly conceives itself as the region with the highest standard of democracy worldwide. Whether we may describe these governments as populists or not depends on the definition of populism. Scholars of populism differ, of course, in their interpretations of this concept. Shaw refers to populism as ‘a style of politics that can operate to close down the discursive space within which citizens can operate as free and equal political agents’. 3 According to Jan-Werner * 1 2 3 Kriszta Kovács, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow, Berlin WZB Center for Global Constitutionalism. Associate Professor, ELTE University Faculty of Law (on research leave until September 2021). This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 794368. Jo Shaw, The People in Question: Citizens and Constitutions in Uncertain Times (Bristol University Press 2020) 26. See ibid 181. ibid 179.