Diana and Democracy (New Formations)

From the flower power of the sixties we have moved on to the flowers outside Kensington Palace which grew in the week following the death of Diana Princess of Wales. Her death and its aftermath raised crucial questions about the nature of monarchy and the concept of democracy, about how "the people" are defined in modern Britain, about the nature of the constitution, the power of mass authority and the nature of legitimacy and popular consent. Anthony Barnett and Carol Watts describe the connections between that intense moment of collective mourning and the Labour landslide of May 1st, while Heather Nunn compares public representations of Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher, and the different ways in which they shaped the feminization of contemporary politics.