Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden. Deel 118

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Summaries

Lifestyles, living conditions and employment in uncertain times. Population and employment patterns in Belgium during the ‘long, drawn-out nineteenth century’, Eric Vanhaute

In recent decades, historic-demographic research has asked new questions, used new sources and experimented with new methods. Yet these innovative trends which have produced a wealth of findings, have failed to revive the debate about broad, overarching patterns and models, which is still dominated by all-encompassing modernisation concepts such as the ‘demographic transition’. This article argues for a renewed, unbiased dialogue between micro and macro approaches and formulates some ideas about bridging the gap between the rich but splintered domain of demographic micro research and historicising models of social transitions. A survey is presented on the accumulated knowledge about important transitions in demographic trends witnessed in 19th century Belgium: Population growth, birth rates, death rates, nuptuals and fertility, conditions in which people lived together and family formations, as well as housing and employment. These processes are subsequently interpreted within the context of the structural transition to an ‘extensive’ 19th century and an ‘intensive’ 20th century social model, respectively.

The role of human rights in post-1945 Dutch foreign policy: Politicological and historical literature, Maarten Kuitenbrouwer

The second Dutch government under Prime Minister Kok fell in 2002 following the publication of a critical report by the Dutch Institute for Wartime Documentation (NIOD) on the Srebenica issue. This event forms the starting point for a review of the recent literature on the role of human rights in Dutch foreign policy during the last few decades in both political science and history. Both disciplines share the ‘decisionmaking analysis’ in international relations theory as a common background. In addition, political scientists and historians have often found themselves researching the same human rights issues that affect Dutch relations with a series of non-Western countries. An explanation of Dutch policy is usually sought based on a combination of internal and external factors. In general, comparative analyses and research into its effectiveness are still conspicuous by their absence. All in all, there are more similarities than differences between recent political and historical studies on the role of human rights in Dutch foreign policy.

Illusions dressed up in old and new ways, Piet de Rooy

In recent years the number of publications on the history of folklore in the Netherlands has grown exponentially. An analysis of these publications is presented here, using an approach from the philosophy of science called ‘the struggle for demarcation’

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(Thomas Gieryn). What really stands out is the way folklorists have persistently tried to gain status and authority by scrutinising the very nature of the discipline and either dismissing or ridiculing older or alternative forms of it. Folklore legitimised racist thinking in the 1930s and 1940s and as a reaction to this ‘tainted past’ an attempt was made in the 1970s to transform folklore into an interdisciplinary science. This attempt failed and a new discipline was subsequently invented: folklore as ethnic studies. Today it is not actually its own troubled past, but rather the popular craving for historical illusions (exhibiting the past in museums) that continues to cast doubts upon the nature and validity of this discipline.

The political culture between political history and the history of civilization, Jac Bosmans

In principle, the author agrees with Te Velde's choice of Thorbecke, Kuyper, Colijn, Drees and Den Uyl as examples of styles of policy-making which, with the benefit of hindsight, seem to be an apt expression of the political spirit of their days, though he does place a few question marks against the choice of Colijn and Drees. In addition, he advocates the establishment of a mutually beneficial co-operative relationship between those political historians who focus in particular on investigating the cultural aspects of politics and those who are more interested in examining the actual results. He argues that this kind of co-operation is necessary in order to withstand the tendency of many cultural historians to claim almost the entire past as the focus of their research, a claim which leaves no room for political history as a separate field of study.

Leadership and Calvinism, Arie van Deursen

Te Velde's comparative study of five Dutch Prime Ministers attempts to examine how leadership changes with the passage of time. It would appear that each one's inimitable style reflected the demands of the particular era in which he lived. This was especially true of Thorbecke. He found his own comfortable niche in a time when politics was the monopoly of a small, elite group of prominent individuals. There are certain rules that govern political leadership, which functions for as long as the circumstances of the time allow these rules to be followed. However, the book does not reveal the nature of these rules in the period between Thorbecke and Kuyper. One also wonders whether Colijn's perception of the task that lay ahead of him did not have more to do with the political faction to which he belonged than with the time in which he lived. Te Velde's use of the term ‘Calvinistic’ to describe a petty, bourgeois way of life is also extremely questionable.

Response, Henk te Velde

During my research I have greatly benefited from the historiography of political parties and I agree with Bosmans that the relatively new approach of political culture should collaborate with classic political history. However, I am more interested in similarities between different political currents and how they compare with the international scene.

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Another area of particular interest for me is the public aspect of political leadership and how this relates to the time in which it takes place. The issue is, therefore, not the party political aspects of Colijn's leadership but rather the praise he received at that time from outside his own party. The most prominent political leaders were not modest administrators but ‘partisan’, controversial members of the best-organised and strongest parties, such as the orthodox Protestant ARP. Among many other things, I analyse the relevance of clichés about ‘Calvinist’ and ‘religious’ politics with regard to the public appeal of ex-orthodox Protestant Den Uyl. Unfortunately, however, Van Deursen seems to believe, unjustly, that I am expressing my own personal opinion on Calvinism.