De Kamers van Arbeid. Experimenten met politieke vertegenwoordiging in Nederland rond 1900

Abstract

The Chambers of Labour: Experiments with Political Representation in the Netherlands ca. 1900In the historiography of the Netherlands so far relatively little attention has been paid to the history of organs of advice and deliberation from the perspective of the evolution of political representation. The late nineteenth century Chambers of Labour are one of the earliest examples of advisory organs representing functional interests. In this article it is argued that the Chambers of Labour constituted a new experiment with political representation in the Netherlands. Arising from a fruitful public debate about forms of representation as alternatives to or adjacent to parliamentary representation at the end of the nineteenth century, as well as local experiments with private labour councils, they were instituted as advisory organs complementary to parliament, representing new groups such as women and labourers. The Chambers of Labour should been seen as coming forth from new thinking about representation and as part of a democratic practice that transcended the parliamentary-electoral boundaries.