Intolerant majorities: the breakthrough of ‘the meeting’ in Belgium, 1860s

Abstract

ABSTRACT According to Charles Tilly, nineteenth-century public meetings were both composed and cosmopolitan affairs in which citizens tried to sublimate parliamentary proceedings as best as they could. Through a case study of political meetings in the city of Antwerp in the years of the censitary suffrage system (1872–93), this article argues that in the port city this was not the case. On the contrary, meetings were quite boisterous affairs with a very local horizon. This article investigates the role and dynamics of mass political meetings in nineteenth-century Antwerp, Belgium, with a focus on the events leading up to the parliamentary elections of 1863. Challenging the conventional view of these gatherings as mere reflections of parliamentary proceedings or training grounds for parliamentary etiquette, the article argues that these meetings operated under distinct rules and codes. Rather than serving as a mimicry of parliamentary norms, the meetings were seen as a necessary correction to what was perceived as an elitist and exclusive parliamentary democracy. The article explores the complex relationship between the parliamentary institution and mass meetings, with a specific examination of the tensions surrounding the inaugural mass meetings in Antwerp in 1862. It contends that these gatherings did not aim to refine or sublimate parliamentary proceedings; instead, they presented a counter-image of parliament characterized by a louder, more intense, and sometimes xenophobic discourse.