Political Representation in the Ancien Régime

This book is addressed to researchers interested in the analysis of the mechanisms of political representation, parliamentary institutions and practices in early modern Europe. The main objective consists in offering a connected and comparative view through a range of rarely analysed case studies in a global perspective.

What kind of political representation existed in the Ancien Régime? Which social sectors were given a voice, and how were they represented in the institutions? These are some of the issues addressed by the authors of this book from different institutional angles (monarchies and republics; parliaments and municipalities), from various European territories and finally from a connected and comparative perspective.

The aim is twofold: analyse the different mechanisms of political representation before Liberalism, their strengths and limitations; value the processes of oligarchisation and the possible mismatch between a libertarian model and a reality which was far from its idealised image.

Autorentext

Joaquim Albareda is Full Professor of Early Modern History at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona.

Manuel Herrero Sánchez is Full Professor of Early Modern History at the Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Seville.

Inhalt

1. Introduction Part I: Preliminary Remarks 2. Enterprising Politics or Routine Dealings?: Political Participation in Europe Before 1800 Part II: Some European Cases France 3. Political Representation in Languedoc Under the Ancien Régime 4. Representation: Political Foundations of the French Province, 15th-18th Century 5. The Administration of French Villages by Their Inhabitants in the Modern Age Italian Republics and Imperial Cities 6. Governing in a Republican State: A Case Study of Genoa from Medieval to Modern Times 7. Political Representation and Symbolic Communication in the Early Modern Period: The Imperial Cities of the Holy Roman Empire Scotland 8. Representation in the Scottish Parliament to 1707 and Scottish Representation in the Parliament of Great Britain to the 1832 Reform Act Part III: The Spanish Monarchy The Crown of Aragon (Aragon, Valencia and Sardinia) 9. Constitution and Political Representation in the Crown of Aragon ***10. Political Representation in the Kingdom of Aragon During the Ancien Régime 11. Political Representation in the Kingdom of Valencia During the Modern Period (16th-18th Century) 12. Political Representation in the Kingdom of Sardinia in the Modern Period: Entry in Force and Retrospection on the Pact-Based Culture The Catalan Case 13. Political Participation in Catalonia: From Zenith to Suppression 14. The Configuration of the Tribunal de Contrafaccions of Catalonia in the Corts of 1701-1702 15. The Conferència dels Comuns in Catalonia (1656-1714): A New Form of Representation and Political Participation Castille and the Basque Territories 16. The Multiple Faces of Representation: Kingdom, Cortes and Estates in the Crown of Castile Under the Habsburgs 17. Municipal Representation in the Crown of Castile in the Early Modern Age 18. Political Participation and Representation in the Basque Country Representation in a Polycentric Monarchy of Urban Republics* 19. Urban Republicanism and Political Representation in the Spanish Monarchy