Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

character of Dutch political institutions and the sometimes slow, even dysfunctional pace of
political decision-making. With power and authority scattered among dozens of city councils,
provincial assemblies, synods, admiralties, and the States General, the state itself was less a
clearly defined locus of sovereignty or a monopoly on the legitimate use of force than it was, in
effect, a system of meetings. 75 As Anne Goldgar has shown, this system created serious
problems when one needed swift resolution to a particular problem: in the wake of the Tulip
Bubble, which popped in 1637, litigants were referred from one assembly to the next, and
sometimes back again, before they were able to find redress for their petitions. 76 In cases relating
to foreign policy or war this could be quite damaging, though, as Guido de Bruin has pointed out,
the deliberative nature of decision-making may have offered important advantages as well:
First, the large number of voting provinces [within the States General] and parts guaranteed a
careful process of decision-making and a consistent line of policy, contrasting favorably with the
politics of the absolute monarchies. Second, the stratified process of decision-making fostered a
large measure of involvement from provincial and local authorities, an unusual interest on the
part of the public and, consequently, a reasonable inclination to cooperate, unlike the monarchies.
Third, the broad base of participation considerably reduced the influence of political corruption. 77
Thus, De Bruin concludes, “the form of government in the Dutch Republic does not deserve the
negative judgment it has received from foreign contemporaries, eighteenth-century reformers,
and nationalist historians.” 78
De Bruin and Van Vree have both shown the extent to which power was exercised not
only in formal assemblies, but in the smaller ad hoc committees to which many issues were
75
The reference is to Max Weber’s well-known definition of the state in his essay “Politics as a Vocation”: “Today,
however, we have to say that a state is a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate
use of physical force within a given territory.” On the variety of state forms in early modern Europe, see Hendrik
Spruyt, The Sovereign State and its Competitors (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994).
76
Anne Goldgar, Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2007).
77
Guido de Bruin, Geheimhouding en Verraad: de Geheimhouding van Staatszaken ten tijde van de Republiek,
1600-1750 (’s-Gravenhage: SDU Uitgeverij, 1991), 616.
78
Ibid.
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