oa TUSSEN VERGADERING EN VERENIGING

The public debate about and experiments with candidate selection and voter organization preceding the first direct elections for the Lower House of the Dutch Parliament in 1848

In November 1848, for the first time direct elections took place for the Lower House of the Dutch Parliament. Until then, overt political organization and participation had been frowned upon in the Netherlands, and made nearly impossible by a highly complex electoral system. This article, on the basis of digitized newspapers, for the first time examines the Dutch public debate about and country-wide local experiments with voter organizations in 1848. It argues that the risky openness of the new system persuaded many elite voters to accept voter organizations as a means to prevent possible radical minorities from selecting candidates. While the divided Dutch past and the revolutionary European present were invoked to plea for a ‘calm’ and ‘tranquil’ type of political organization, local political practice displayed more contestation and experimentation than heretofore recognized.