The springs of democracy : national and transnational debates on constitutional reform in the British, German, Swedish and Finnish Parliaments, 1917-1919 / / Pasi Ihalainen

• Autore: Ihalainen Pasi
• Pubblicazione: Helsinki : , : Finnish Literature Society / SKS, , [2017]; ©2017
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (586 pages)
• Disciplina: 321.8
• Soggetto topico: Representative government and representation; Representative government and representation - Finland
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Acknowledgements -- List of abbreviations -- 1.Introduction -- 1.1 The reform debates of the revolutionary era 1917-19 in inter- andtransnational comparisons -- 1.2 Towards a comparative and transnational history of political discourse -- 1.3 Discourse-oriented political history based on parliamentary sources -- 1.4 The structure of the analysis -- 2. National backgrounds of constitutional disputes from spring 1917to summer 1919 -- 2.1 The standstill in the British constitutional reform before andduring the war -- 2.2 Universal male suffrage in Germany. Prussian executive power and scepticism about parliamentarism -- 2.3 Prolonged disputes on suffrage and parliamentary government in Sweden -- 2.4 Finland - a grand duchy of the Russian Empire with exceptionally broad suffrage but no parliamentary government -- 3. The spring of democracy in 1917: The new constitutional scenecreated by the prolonged war, the Russian Revolution andthe American intervention -- 3.1 Britain: The wartime situation used to force through a postponedreform -- 3.1.1 A continuing constitutional crisis -- 3.1.2 Creating 'a new Britain' consensually in a time of war and revolution -- 3.1.3 Cautious Labour and Liberal democrats versus patently democratic Conservatives -- 3.1.4 Creating a 'Parliament of the people' while avoiding a 'constitutional revolution' -- 3.1.5 A new Parliament - 'a mirror of the nation' engaging the citizens and placing its trust in the masses -- 3.1.6 The committee stage during a campaign for amendments -- 3.2 Wartime demands for the democratisation and parliamentarisation of Imperial Germany -- 3.2.1 The German polity in a profoundly transformed world -- 3.2.2 Implications of the war, the Russian Revolution andthe British reform for the German constitution -- 3.2.3 The Western democracies and a new democratic order in Germany -- 3.2.4 The role of a 'free' German people and the masses in a new era -- 3.2.5 What would the co-sovereignty of parliaments mean? -- 3.3 Sweden: Renewed reform demands under the threat of revolution -- 3.3.1 The situation created by a repeatedly postponed suffrage reform -- 3.3.2 Building 'dams of ice' or welcoming the spring in the midst of transnational change -- 3.3.3 A global breaking-up of the ice for the forces of democracy? -- 3.3.4 The role of the Swedish people in the reformed polity -- 3.3.5 Should parliamentarism be seen as the established system, an instrument for creating a better society through debate, or a system to be taken over by the people? -- 3.4 Finland: The legitimacy of the parliament deteriorates at the moment of democratisation and parliamentarisation -- 3.4.1 Sovereignty in the former grand duchy: in the parliament, the government or a Russian-style 'democracy'? -- 3.4.2 The international, imperial and national political order changed by the war and revolution -- 3.4.3 International democracy or the vernacular 'rule by the people'? -- 3.4.4 Defining the position of the people within the Finnish polity -- 3.4.5 Prospects for a parliamentary Finland: opposing Social Democratic and bourgeois views -- 4. The autumn of 1917: A completed, a suspended and a partial reform - and a failed reform leading to a civil war -- 4.1 Britain: The rising politisation of democracy -- 4.1.1 A final confrontation on extended suffrage between the two chambers -- 4.1.2 'This Bill is a revolution': The reform in relation to British constitutional history and foreign examples -- 4.1.3 The increasingly contested definition of 'democracy' -- 4.1.4 'Women in Parliament, in Governments': The widening involvement of the people in politics -- 4.1.5 The future of a democratic parliamentary polity after the war -- 4.2 Germany: Democratisation and parliamentarisation come to a halt -- 4.3 Sweden: The introduction of parliamentary government as a safeguard against domestic upheaval -- 4.4 Finland: Discursive struggles over democracy and parliamentarism turn into an attempted revolution -- 4.4.1 The Bolshevik Revolution and the questioned legitimacy of Finland's disputatious new parliament -- 4.4.2 Reforms to be implemented by a national parliament or by an international revolution? -- 4.4.3 The Finnish 'rule by the people' in the shadow of Bolshevism -- 4.4.4 A people divided by class and parliamentary discourse -- 4.4.5 Diminishing trust in parliamentary government escalates the crisis -- 5. The Spring of 1918: Western and Prussian versions of 'parliamentarism' clash in the Swedish and Finnish parliaments -- 5.1 Britain after of the Representation of the People Act -- 5.2 Germany: All quiet on the reform front -- 5.3 Sweden: A parliamentarised ministry introduces its first reform proposal -- 5.3.1 Anti-reformism bolstered by a civil war next door -- 5.3.2 Surrounding wars and revolutions as transnational agents of political change -- 5.3.3 An attempted democratic breakthrough -- 5.3.4 Bypassing the political rights of the Swedish people -- 5.3.5 All parties on the side of parliamentarism - but different kinds of parliamentarism -- 5.4 Finland reconstructed to resemble a little Prussia -- 5.4.1 The attempt to restrict reform by restoring the monarchy -- 5.4.2 A counter-revolution built on an assumed German victory -- 5.4.3 Redescribed rightist or principled centrist democracy - or no democracy at all? -- 5.4.4 Disappointment with the Finnish people or continuing confidence in it -- 5.4.5 Limited debates on parliamentarism in the Rump Parliament -- 6. The autumn of 1918: German, Swedish and Finnish constitutional debates in the face of a democratic turn -- 6.1 Democratic suffrage applied in Britain for the first time -- 6.2 Germany loses the war, introduces parliamentary government and experiences a revolution -- 6.2.1 The course of the German Revolution up to the fall of the Kaiser -- 6.2.2 Comparing the German Revolution with the Bismarckian system and the Finnish counterrevolution -- 6.2.3 Divergent understandings of German democracy -- 6.2.4 The German people as a political agent -- 6.2.5 Crypto-parliamentarism comes into the open -- 6.2.6 The radical phase of the revolution in November and December 1918 -- 6.3 Sweden introduces an electoral reform: No revolution like those in Russia, Finland or Germany -- 6.3.1 A reluctant rightist opposition gives in after the fall of the German monarchy -- 6.3.2 The war and revolution as agents of domestic reform -- 6.3.3 Optimistic and pessimistic visions of a democratic Sweden -- 6.3.4 The relationship between the will of 'the people' and the interests of 'the realm' is problematised -- 6.3.5 Parliamentarism under democratised suffrage -- 6.4 The monarchist majority of the Finnish Rump Parliament in search of a stable polity -- 6.4.1 The strange logic of Finnish constitutional politics in late summer and autumn 1918 -- 6.4.2 A controversy over the excessive transnational influence of Germany -- 6.4.3 Monarchical vs. republican democracy -- 6.4.4 'The will of the people' interpreted for and against a republic -- 6.4.5 Parliamentarism redefined or endangered by the monarchists? -- 7. ; The spring of 1919: The beginning of an era of democracy and parliamentarism? -- 7.1 Britain: Parliamentary democracy established or a bureaucratic state reinforced? -- 7.2 The construction of a democratic and parliamentary Germany in the Weimar National Assembly -- 7.2.1 Expert planning for a new constitution -- 7.2.2 A revolution against dictatorship -- 7.2.3 Defining 'the most democratic democracy in the world' -- 7.2.4 'Power in the state belongs to the people' -- 7.2.5 Extolling, limiting and ignoring parliamentarism -- 7.3 Sweden: Adjusting the principles of a future democracy -- 7.3.1 Swedish parties after the suffrage reform -- 7.3.2 Internationalism after war and revolution -- 7.3.3 Further prospects for democracy and parliamentarism -- 7.3.4 Politics of the people in a democratic Sweden -- 7.3.5 A glance across the Gulf of Bothnia -- 7.4 Finland: Moving towards a compromise on a presidential parliamentary republic -- 7.4.1 Re-orienting the polity after the war -- 7.4.2 Rethought international comparisons and transnational connections after the war and the revolutions -- 7.4.3 Searching for a compromise between Socialist, centrist and rightist democracy -- 7.4.4 Popular sovereignty recognised by all but one parliamentary party -- 7.4.5 The remaining limits on parliamentarism -- 8. ; The entangled parliamentary revolutions of 1917-19: Comparison, discussion and conclusion -- Appendix: Selected key events in national politics -- Bibliography -- Primary sources -- Newspapers -- Literature -- Abstract -- Subject and Place Index -- Index of Names.
• Sommario/riassunto: During the First World War, conflicts between the people's sacrifices and their political participation led to crises of parliamentary legitimacy. This volume compares British, German, Swedish and Finnish debates on revolution, rule by the people, democracy and parliamentarism and their transnational links. The British reform, although more about winning the war than advancing democracy, restored parliamentary legitimacy, unlike in Germany, where Allied demands for democratisation made reform appear treasonous and fostered native German solutions. Sweden only adopted Western political models after major confrontations, but reforms saw it embark on its path to Social Democracy. In Finland, competing Russian revolutionary discourses and German- and Swedish-inspired appeals to legality brought about the deterioration of parliamentary legitimacy and a civil war. Only a republican compromise imposed by the Entente, following a royalist initiative in 1918, led to the construction of a viable polity.
• Altri titoli varianti: Springs Of Democracy
• Titolo autorizzato: The Springs Of Democracy
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Record Nr.: 9910476881703321
• Lo trovi qui: Univ. Federico II
• Serie: Studia Fennica. . -Historica ; ; Volume 24.