BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review

Van wie was het stadhuis?

Nathan van Kleij — 2023-09-29

In the fifteenth century the town hall was a crowded, public government building in cities in the northern Low Countries. It was a multifunctional building, being an important centre for urban governance and the location for public services. Authorities aimed to regulate access and behaviour in the building, and especially in the court rooms, through built environment, protocols and enforcement. Yet, order in the town hall was not self-evident. By examining statutes and criminal records and using a 3D reconstruction of the public hall and public courtroom, this article shows how disorder in the town hall of Gouda and Leiden was common and contested the order so much desired by local magistrates. Both city officials and other inhabitants purposely used the openness of specific spaces in the town hall to publicly emphasize or contest authority. I argue that the late medieval town hall was shaped by both governmental structures and its daily use by a diverse group of urban dwellers.

(W)elke stem telt

Karen Lauwers — 2023-09-29

Modifications to the electoral system in the Netherlands and Belgium at the turn of the twentieth century were the result of long discussions about what the ‘ideal’ parliamentary representation implied and how it had to be accomplished. Moreover, the mps’ additional reflection on the necessity of a proportional distribution of votes added an extra dimension to the debates in the Lower Houses. ‘Democracy’ then seemed to have become an unavoidable process. However, what did ‘democracy’ mean, exactly, for the parliamentary representatives of different political orientations in both countries? And what role was the introduction of the proportionality system expected to play in, for example, the limitation, display or promotion of said ‘democracy’? A detailed analysis of the parliamentary discourse with which the orators (in Belgium in 1899 and in the Netherlands in 1916-1917) made implicit and explicit connections between this new electoral system and their perceptions of democracy, reveals similarities and differences that surpassed the national boundaries and the left-right divide.

Ethische politiek verbeeld als de christelijke beschavingsmissie

Jan Breman — 2023-09-29

This review article assesses Hans van der Jagt’s biography of the Dutch antirevolutionary politician and colonial official Alexander Willem Frederik Idenburg (Engelen uit Europa, 2022). Van der Jagt incorrectly depicts Idenburg as the figurehead of the Dutch colonial ethical policy at the beginning of the early twentieth century, while unduly idealising this policy. As is argued in this review article, this ethical policy was in effect instrumentalised as camouflage, concealing the perpetuation of the colonial intent -enforcement of Dutch rule, including extensive exploitation of land and people. Deriving from social concern about the impoverishment of the Indonesian population, the vast wealth amassed was intended to reduce the cost of the colony and help empower its inhabitants. Although this political mission was not realised, persistently referring to it served to justify ongoing Dutch rule both in the late colonial and in the post-colonial eras. In this article, I bring the disenchanting practices of the parties involved and their interests in sharper focus and I evaluate the role of Idenburg as the political centrepiece of this ethical policy. In the high-ranking colonial offices entrusted to him, he represented the anti-revolutionary doctrine in the policy pursued. Other operators, advocates and opponents of ethical policy alike, along with their motives, are addressed here as well, from the slow, cautious start of the ethical policy until its early eclipse.

From the editors - Editorial

Marnix Beyen — 2023-09-29