Burgerij, liberalen en democratie. Kanttekeningen bij een toetsing van de bourgeoisiethese

Samenvatting

A critical response to A. Th. Derksen (see SA 31:5/83N4342), whose idea that the rise of a capitalist bourgeoisie in the Netherlands in the mid-nineteenth century caused a democratization of autocratic governments is distorted. He fallaciously presupposes democratization to be the creation of one SC, politically represented by only one political force. An analysis of the liberal reforms of 1848 shows that such democratization was not the policy of a particular stage in capitalist development, but rather a conjunctural outcome. The emerging democratic force is not a single class, but a balance of conflicts within the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie thesis is here reinterpreted, in that democratization is seen as dependent on specific circumstances & crises, whereas the set of social & political forces, actors, & ideologies is viewed as a mediating variable. 2 Figures. Modified HA.