In deze scriptie staat te hoe de positie van dienstweigeraars en deserteurs van de Nederlands-Indonesische oorlog in het collectieve geheugen zich heeft ontwikkeld tussen 1945 en 2005.
Een cultuurhistorische analyse van Nederlandse diplomaten in de twintigste eeuw, waarbij in de eerste plaats op basis van diplomatieke memoires een beeld geschetst wordt van de grote veranderingen...Show moreEen cultuurhistorische analyse van Nederlandse diplomaten in de twintigste eeuw, waarbij in de eerste plaats op basis van diplomatieke memoires een beeld geschetst wordt van de grote veranderingen in de habitus en persona van de de diplomaat en de diplomatieke cultuur in Nederland tussen 1900-2000. Tegen de achtergrond van een democratiserende maatschappij bleef het corps diplomatique lange tijd een bastion van adel en patriciaat, waarbij een belangrijke brugfunctie was weggelegd voor corporale studentenverenigingen. Na de Tweede Wereldoorlog begint een decennialange transformatie, waarbij het aristocratische karakter van de diplomatie geleidelijk aan plaatsmaakt voor een meer bureaucratische bedrijfscultuur.Show less
In dit onderzoek wordt de herkomst en ontwikkeling onderzocht van de Nederlandse traditie om de verkiezingsprogramma's van politieke partijen door te rekenen op hun economische effecten. Deze...Show moreIn dit onderzoek wordt de herkomst en ontwikkeling onderzocht van de Nederlandse traditie om de verkiezingsprogramma's van politieke partijen door te rekenen op hun economische effecten. Deze traditie, waarmee in 1986 werd aangevangen, was een reactie op de hoge werkloosheid in die tijd. Meer nog dan in andere Westerse landen werd in Nederland de economie bovendien gezien als een exacte wetenschap, die door middel van modellen accuraat de toekomst zou kunnen voorspellen. Maar er lagen wel degelijk ideologische veronderstellingen aan de basis van de modellen van het planbureau. Sinds de jaren '70 had daar een omslag plaatsgevonden van Keynesiaanse naar neoklassieke modellen. De toenemende invloed van de doorrekeningen in campagnetijd liet partijen echter weinig keuze: om serieus genomen te worden, moest je wel doorrekenen. Dit faciliteerde zowel de 'no-nonsense' managerspolitiek van de kabinetten-Lubbers, als de gedepolitiseerde consensuspolitiek van Paars. Tegelijkertijd leidden deze bestuurdersmentaliteit en het gebrek aan strijd in de politiek tot de Fortuynrevolte van 2002.Show less
The French Senate is nowadays often presented by its critics as an institution that is conflicting with the principles of democracy. This raises questions about how this area of tension between...Show moreThe French Senate is nowadays often presented by its critics as an institution that is conflicting with the principles of democracy. This raises questions about how this area of tension between democracy and the second chamber has emerged and evolved throughout the history of the French political system. Bicameralism seems contradictory to the French political culture because the republican doctrine strongly believed in a single assembly. This research focuses on the first half of the French Third Republic (1870-1914) and investigates to what extend the Senate was considered to be compatible with democracy. How was it possible that a Senate -an institution that seemed to have lost its place in the French political landscape and was associated with aristocracy and conservative liberalism- obtained a place in the institutional framework of this republic which was so democratic for its time? In general, historians have shown little interest in upper houses. However, this thesis argues that in order to get a complete picture of the reasons behind the evolution of democratic institutions it is not enough to merely study political theory or constitutional law; one should also look at the reality of political practice. In order to understand how important historical events and national context in France were in shaping the debate about the relation between the Senate and democracy, the French case is put in an international comparative perspective with the discussions that took place around the same period in Belgium and The Netherlands. This research demonstrates that the French Senate of the Third Republic was not constructed against democracy, or simply as the representation of conservative forces. It rather was a very inventive chamber that served the interest of the Republican Party, promoted democracy and played an important role in the political education of the French countryside and its integration into the French nation. Secondly, it is argued that discussions about the legitimacy of the French upper house were to a very large extend determined by historical circumstances -such as the Boulanger crisis and the Dreyfus affair-, political opportunism, pragmatism, and specificities in the national political culture.Show less
Research master thesis | History: Societies and Institutions (research) (MA)
open access
2013-01-18T00:00:00Z
In the British House of Commons of the 1860s and 1870s, the concept of ‘democracy’ was despised by most of its members: the word carried a strong negative connotation. No one wanted to have a...Show moreIn the British House of Commons of the 1860s and 1870s, the concept of ‘democracy’ was despised by most of its members: the word carried a strong negative connotation. No one wanted to have a democracy, and no one wanted to be a democrat. Gradual franchise extensions (1867, 1884) transformed this valuation. Yet it took the British parliament decades of debates, and three parliamentary reform acts, before the concept of ‘democracy’ was judged positively by most members of the House. It was only after the Third Reform Act, during the Irish Home Rule debates of 1886, that a new consensus was reached: on the fact that Great-Britain was a democracy, and essentially ruled by ‘the people’. Twenty years before, during the Second Reform Act debates in 1866, such an utterance was unimaginable; it was perhaps desired by a few Radicals, but condemned by a broad majority. Hence, in the period from 1866 to 1886, the meaning and value of the concept of ‘democracy’ underwent a complete and unexpected change. How can we explain this conceptual turnover, from an essentially negative to a predominantly positive valuation? And how did democracy’s meaning shift? Those are the two questions that this thesis tries to answer.Show less
