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This edited collection explores the perceptions and memories of parliamentarianism across Europe, examining the complex ideal of parliament since 1800. Parliament has become the key institution in modern democracy, and the chapters present the evolution of the ideal of parliamentary representation and government, and discuss the reception and value of parliament as an institution. It is considered both as a guiding concept, a Leitidee, as well as an ideal, an Idealtypus. The volume is split into three sections. The establishment of parliament in the nineteenth century and the transfer of parliamentary ideals, models and practices are described in the first section, based on the British and French models. The second part explores how the high expectations of parliamentary democracy in newly-established states after the First World War gradually started to subside into dissatisfaction. Finally, the last section attests to its resilience after the Second World War, demonstrating the strength of the ideal of parliament and its power to incorporate criticism. Examining the history of parliament through concepts and ideals, this book traces a transnational, European exchange of models, routines and discourse.
List of contents
1 The Ideal of Parliament. A European History since 1800: Introduction - Remieg Aerts and Joop Th.J. van den Berg.- Part One: Establishing Parliaments .- 2 Between National Character and an International Model: Parliaments in the Nineteenth Century - Henk te Velde.- 3 Parliamentary Government in Southern Europe? The Model of the Cádiz Cortes and the Ideal of the Moderate Monarchy - Jens Späth.- 4 The Men of 1830: Remembering the National Congress in the Belgian House of Representatives, 1844-1930 - Marnix Beyen.- 5 New Models and Old Traditions: Debates on Parliamentarism in Hungary after the Austro-Hungarian Settlement of 1867 - András Cieger.- 6 Experiencing Parliamentarism: The German National Assembly of 1848 - Andreas Schulz.- Part Two: Crises of Expectations.- 7 Enthusiasm for Parliamentary Democracy in New States after the First World War: The Case of Poland - Stephanie Zloch.- 8 Closing the Expectation Gap? Crises of Hungarian Parliamentarism in the Inter-War Period - Kálmán Pócza.- 9 'A Bad Parliamentarianism': Normative Expectations and Criticism of Parliamentarianism in the Weimar Reichstag - Thomas Raithel.- Part Three: Resilience of Parliamentary Ideals.- 10 Trial and Error. Post-War Democracies and the Restoration of Parliamentarism: Italy, Austria, Germany - Marie-Luise Recker.- 11 Too Ideal to be a Parliament: The Representative Assemblies in Socialist Czechoslovakia, 1948-1989 - Adéla Gjuricová.- 12 The Transfer of Parliamentary Ideals to Civil Society in the Netherlands in the 1970s - Wim de Jong.- 13 Change and Continuity: Implementing Parliamentary Democracy in Eastern Europe after 1989 with a Focus on Slovenia - Jure Gasparic.
About the author
Remieg Aerts is Professor of Dutch History at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Carla van Baalen is Professor of Parliamentary History at Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Henk te Velde is Professor of Dutch History at Leiden University, the Netherlands.
Margit van der Steen is Managing Director of the Netherlands Research School Political History at the Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Marie-Luise Recker is Professor Emeritus of Modern History at the J.W. Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Summary
This edited collection explores the perceptions and memories of parliamentarianism across Europe, examining the complex ideal of parliament since 1800. Parliament has become the key institution in modern democracy, and the chapters present the evolution of the ideal of parliamentary representation and government, and discuss the reception and value of parliament as an institution. It is considered both as a guiding concept, a
Leitidee, as well as an ideal, an
Idealtypus. The volume is split into three sections. The establishment of parliament in the nineteenth century and the transfer of parliamentary ideals, models and practices are described in the first section, based on the British and French models. The second part explores how the high expectations of parliamentary democracy in newly-established states after the First World War gradually started to subside into dissatisfaction. Finally, the last section attests to its resilience after the Second World War, demonstrating the strength of the ideal of parliament and its power to incorporate criticism. Examining the history of parliament through concepts and ideals, this book traces a transnational, European exchange of models, routines and discourse.
