Abstract
Since the 1990s, research has been carried out worldwide into the relationship between ‘civil society’ (an organised, self-aware society) and the formation of democracy. Dutch historians have to date shown little interest in this field of research, although the case of the Netherlands is an interesting one, both historically and in terms of current affairs. This article makes a case for the relevance of Dutch history to the debate on civil society in relation to three points. Firstly, where civil society is a phenomenon of the eighteenth and above all the nineteenth centuries, the society of the Republic demonstrates that a corporatist order can show characteristics of a civil society. Secondly, the factor of religion can be an important element in the promotion of social commitment. Thirdly, Dutch history flags up a paradox: it seems that a highly developed, civil society can rather limit than promote the need for political democracy and the recognition of an independent political sphere. This article is part of the special issue 'The International Relevance of Dutch History'.
Highlights
Civil society as a research theme ‘Civil society’ has proven one of the most successful concepts, both in the social sciences and in public debate, as is evident from the profusion of publications on the subject that have appeared in the past two decades
It harks back to republican discourse and political philosophy of the early modern age, the concept made a comeback in the 1980s in circles of East European dissident intellectuals
Having initially been an issue mainly within the social and political sciences, during the past decade, civil society has become an object of study among historians too
Summary
Though the Dutch Republic shared quite a number of features with the other ‘old regimes’ of the early modern age, it was a singular phenomenon among the more or less absolutist monarchies of the period.[19]. Apart from being official, regulatory bodies, the guilds and town militias served as cultural and social institutions through their public ceremonies, festivities and prestigious lodgings They are interesting in this respect from the perspective of civil society. Guilds and town militias were horizontal, self-governing associations of (lower) middle class citizens, which didn’t normally exclude members on grounds of religious differences They organized the interests of a broad middle class and boosted its solidarity, social confidence and sense of responsibility. In 1780-1787 was oligarchic rule fundamentally contested, earlier periods of unrest notwithstanding.[26] Given this history, and given the standards of Habermas’s ideal of a free public sphere and the nineteenth-century type of voluntary association, it is difficult to recognize a civil society or a rudimentary stage of democracy in the corporatist order of the Dutch Republic. Because of its lively public debate, the urban society of the Dutch Republic has been characterized as a ‘discussion culture’.28 formal participation in government was denied to the community, a pragmatic culture of bargaining between citizens and authorities gradually arose, aimed at problem-solving, channelling interests and conflicts, and socialization
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