Politieke cultuur tussen cultuurgeschiedenis en politieke geschiedenis

Abstract

H. te Velde, Stijlen van leiderschap. Persoon en politiek van Thorbecke tot Den Uyl

Jac Bosmans, The political culture between political history and the history of civilization
In principle, the author agrees with Te Velde's choice of Thorbecke, Kuyper, Colijn, Drees and Den Uyl as examples of styles of policy-making which, with the benefit of hindsight, seem to be an apt expression of the political spirit of their days, though he does place a few question marks against the choice of Colijn and Drees. In addition, he advocates the establishment of a mutually beneficial co-operative relationship between tfiose political historians who focus in particular on investigating the cultural aspects of politics and those who are more interested in examining the actual results. He argues that this kind of co-operation is necessary in order to withstand the tendency of many cultural historians to claim almost the entire past as the focus of their research, a claim which leaves no room for political history as a separate field of study.

This review is part of the discussion forum 'Stijlen van leiderschap' (H. te Velde).