Organizing Democracy: Reflections on the Rise of Political Organizations in the Nineteenth Century (Palgrave Studies in Political History)

"This book explores the new types of political organization that emerged in Western Europe and the United States during the nineteenth century, from popular meetings to single-issue organizations and political parties. The development of these has often been used to demonstrate a movement towards democratic representation or political institutionalization. This volume challenges the idea that the development of 'democracy' is a story of rise and progress at all. It is rather a story of continuous but never completely satisfying attempts of interpreting the rule of the people. Taking the perspective of nineteenth-century organizers as its point of departure, this study shows that contemporaries hardly distinguished between petitioning, meeting and association. The attraction of organizing was that it promised representation, accountability and popular participation. Only in the twentieth century did parties reliable partners for the state in averting revolution, managing the unpredictable effects of universal suffrage, and reforming society. This collection analyzes them in their earliest stage, as just one of several types of civil society organizations, that did not differ that much from each other. The promise of organization, and the experiments that resulted from it, deeply impacted modern politics."-- Provided by publisher Preface 6 Acknowledgments 7 Contents 8 Biographies of Contributors 10 List of Tables 12 Chapter 1: Introduction: Perspectives on Political Organizing 13 Features of Nineteenth-Century Political Organizing 15 Organizing Democracy 21 Notes 27 Chapter 2: ‘Association Is a Mighty Engine’: Mass Organization and the Machine Metaphor, 1825–1840 31 The Machine Metaphor in Politics 33 Religious Machines 36 ‘The Great Art of Adapting Means to Ends’ 38 The Technological Sublime 42 Concluding Remarks 46 Notes 49 Chapter 3: ‘Petition! Petition!! Petition!!!: Petitioning and Political Organization in Britain, c. 1800–1850’ 55 The Growth of Popular Petitioning 57 The Advantages of Petitioning as a Method of Political Organization 60 Organization and Participation: The Case of the Anti-Corn Law League 65 Conclusion and Reflections 68 Notes 69 Chapter 4: Can ‘The People’ Speak? Popular Meetings and the Ambiguities of Popular Sovereignty in the United States, 1816–1828 74 Notes 89 Chapter 5: Law and Voluntary Association in the Early United States 95 Law-Mindedness and Everyday Constitutionalism in American Civil Society 97 Law and American Voluntarism 100 Notes 108 Chapter 6: Organizing in a Moment of Madness: Political Meetings and Clubs in 1848 114 Meetings on the Brink of Revolution 116 Club Fever in Paris 119 Clubs in Revolutionary Berlin 123 Conclusion 125 Notes 127 Chapter 7: The Democratic Framing of Protest in the Age of Revolution: The Language of Civil Rights and the Organization of Petitions and Demonstrations in Belgium, 1830–1848 136 Introduction 136 The Importance of Civil Rights Discourse in the Belgian Revolution of 1830 138 From Petitions to Demonstrations in Ghent, 1831–1839 140 The Freedom of Association and Assembly 145 Conclusion 149 Notes 150 Chapter 8: Brilliant Failure: Political Parties Under the Republican Era in France (1870–1914) 153 Why Did the Political Parties Fail? 156 The Left 158 The Special Features of French Republican Politics 163 Conclusion 166 Notes 167 Chapter 9: The German National Association 1859–1867: Rise and Fall of a Proto-Party 172 Aims and Political Strategies: Three Phases in the History of the Nationalverein 173 The Nationalverein’s Organizational Structure 178 Forms of Action 181 On the Way to a Modern Major Party? The Efforts Undertaken to Reform the Nationalverein 185 Post-Nationalverein: The National Liberal Party and Social Democracy 187 Notes 188 Chapter 10: Manipulation or Participation? Membership Inclusion in the Party Organizations of the German Social Democratic Workers’ Party and the British National Liberal Federation 192 How to Implement Organizational Ideals? 194 Organization in Practice 200 Participation and Legitimacy 204 Conclusion 210 Notes 211 Chapter 11: Agitate, Educate, and Organize: Radical Networks in New York in the Early 1880s 217 The Election of 1880 219 Spreading the Light 222 The Election of 1882 225 Being Organized 227 The ‘Party’ 231 Conclusion 232 Notes 234 Chapter 12: Party Versus Party: Beatrice Webb and the Ascent of the British Labour Party 238 The Political Hostess 240 Grosvenor Road 246 The Labour Party Machine 250 Conclusion: The Strange Death of the Political Hostess? 253 Notes 254 Chapter 13: The Domestication of a Machine. The Debate About Political Parties Around 1900 259 The Study of Political Parties 261 The Future of Democracy and American Political Parties 263 Ostrogorski and the Caucus 265 Popular Participation 268 Max Weber and the Domestication of Democracy 271 Conclusion 273 Notes 275 Bibliography 280 Index 285 Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Introduction: Perspectives on Political Organizing....Pages 1-18 ‘Association Is a Mighty Engine’: Mass Organization and the Machine Metaphor, 1825–1840....Pages 19-42 ‘Petition! Petition!! Petition!!!: Petitioning and Political Organization in Britain, c. 1800–1850’....Pages 43-61 Can ‘The People’ Speak? Popular Meetings and the Ambiguities of Popular Sovereignty in the United States, 1816–1828....Pages 63-83 Law and Voluntary Association in the Early United States....Pages 85-103 Organizing in a Moment of Madness: Political Meetings and Clubs in 1848....Pages 105-126 The Democratic Framing of Protest in the Age of Revolution: The Language of Civil Rights and the Organization of Petitions and Demonstrations in Belgium, 1830–1848....Pages 127-143 Brilliant Failure: Political Parties Under the Republican Era in France (1870–1914)....Pages 145-163 The German National Association 1859–1867: Rise and Fall of a Proto-Party....Pages 165-184 Manipulation or Participation? Membership Inclusion in the Party Organizations of the German Social Democratic Workers’ Party and the British National Liberal Federation....Pages 185-209 Agitate, Educate, and Organize: Radical Networks in New York in the Early 1880s....Pages 211-231 Party Versus Party: Beatrice Webb and the Ascent of the British Labour Party....Pages 233-253 The Domestication of a Machine. The Debate About Political Parties Around 1900....Pages 255-275 Back Matter....Pages 277-295 Annotation This book explores the new types of political organization that emerged in Western Europe and the United States during the nineteenth century, from popular meetings to single-issue organizations and political parties. The development of these has often been used to demonstrate a movement towards democratic representation or political institutionalization. This volume challenges the idea that the development of 'democracy' is a story of rise and progress at all. It is rather a story of continuous but never completely satisfying attempts of interpreting the rule of the people. Taking the perspective of nineteenth-century organizers as its point of departure, this study shows that contemporaries hardly distinguished between petitioning, meeting and association. The attraction of organizing was that it promised representation, accountability and popular participation. Only in the twentieth century did parties reliable partners for the state in averting revolution, managing the unpredictable effects of universal suffrage, and reforming society. This collection analyzes them in their earliest stage, as just one of several types of civil society organizations, that did not differ that much from each other. The promise of organization, and the experiments that resulted from it, deeply impacted modern politics