The fourth part of the project spans the Netherlands, Switzerland, the German Confederation/Germany, the Habsburg Empire, the divided lands of Poland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
In focussing on central and northern Europe, we want to foreground the following themes:
- The fortunes of the word in these places, with attention to whether there was any special form of cross-fertilisation between places sharing the same language, or language-group
- The ways in which traditions of republicanism, elective monarchy, and government via assemblies of estates, found in many parts of the region, shaped ways in which democracy was subsequently imagined, and were themselves subject to re-imagining by people influenced by new ideas about ‘democracy’
- The relationship between ideas of nationhood and political theories and practices (associated e.g. with attempts to actualise ‘the sovereignty of the people’ – prompting the question, who are the people?)
- Ways in which ‘democracy’ was invoked in relation to contentious issues in rural society (eg the rights of peasants; the future of serfdom)
- Mid century and later interest in new devices to improve the functioning of democracy (in which connection, Switzerland especially functioned as a site of experiment).
How we’ll proceed
We will explore the questions we have outlined in a series of workshops and conferences, online and face to face., We started in early 2023 and are likely to continue until the end of 2026. We aim to engage some dozens of scholars based in diverse places within and beyond the region in these discussions, to refine the shape of the project and start fleshing out the stories that can be told.
Past experience is that these activities will give rise to publications in various places, often in the form of journal articles. In due course, we will identify from among those who’ve contributed to the workshops and conferences a team of contributors who will work collaboratively to compile a fourth and final volume of essays in our series.
We also expect to take the opportunity to explore a number of themes not distinctively associated with this region, but which we haven’t focussed on to date, and could explore in this context, including:
- The role of the word in learned traditions – and how these traditions, and their social reach changed over time
- Discourses about democracy which linked it either to individualism or socialism
- The ways in which people tried to express their self-conscious democratic commitment in daily life, especially in periods of heightened excitement about the potential of democracy to transform state and society (the 1790s; 1848 and after)
Re-imagining Democracy 