Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Timeline of the Sister Republics (1794-1806)
- The political culture of the Sister Republics
- ‘The political passions of other nations’: National choices and the European order in the writings of Germaine de Staël
- 1 The transformation of republicanism
- The transformation of republicanism in the Sister Republics
- ‘Republic’ and ‘democracy’ in Dutch late eighteenth-century revolutionary discourse
- New wine in old wineskins: Republicanism in the Helvetic Republic
- 2 Political concepts and languages
- Revolutionary concepts and languages in the Sister Republics of the late 1790s
- Useful citizens. Citizenship and democracy in the Batavian Republic, 1795-1801
- From rights to citizenship to the Helvetian indigénat: Political integration of citizens under the Helvetic Republic
- The battle over ‘democracy’ in Italian political thought during the revolutionary triennio, 1796-1799
- 3 The invention of democratic parliamentary practices
- Parliamentary practices in the Sister Republics in the light of the French experience
- Making the most of national time: Accountability, transparency, and term limits in the first Dutch Parliament (1796-1797)
- The invention of democratic parliamentary practices in the Helvetic Republic: Some remarks
- The Neapolitan republican experiment of 1799: Legislation, balance of power, and the workings of democracy between theory and practice
- 4 Press, politics, and public opinion
- Censorship and press liberty in the Sister Republics: Some reflections
- 1798: A turning point?: Censorship in the Batavian Republic
- Censorship and public opinion: Press and politics in the Helvetic Republic (1798-1803)
- Liberty of press and censorship in the first Cisalpine Republic
- 5 The Sister Republics and France
- Small nation, big sisters
- The national dimension in the Batavian Revolution: Political discussions, institutions, and constitutions
- The constitutional debate in the Helvetic Republic in 1800-1801: Between French influence and national self-government
- An unwelcome Sister Republic: Re-reading political relations between the Cisalpine Republic and the French Directory
- Bibliography
- List of contributors
- Notes
- Index
The invention of democratic parliamentary practices in the Helvetic Republic: Some remarks
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Timeline of the Sister Republics (1794-1806)
- The political culture of the Sister Republics
- ‘The political passions of other nations’: National choices and the European order in the writings of Germaine de Staël
- 1 The transformation of republicanism
- The transformation of republicanism in the Sister Republics
- ‘Republic’ and ‘democracy’ in Dutch late eighteenth-century revolutionary discourse
- New wine in old wineskins: Republicanism in the Helvetic Republic
- 2 Political concepts and languages
- Revolutionary concepts and languages in the Sister Republics of the late 1790s
- Useful citizens. Citizenship and democracy in the Batavian Republic, 1795-1801
- From rights to citizenship to the Helvetian indigénat: Political integration of citizens under the Helvetic Republic
- The battle over ‘democracy’ in Italian political thought during the revolutionary triennio, 1796-1799
- 3 The invention of democratic parliamentary practices
- Parliamentary practices in the Sister Republics in the light of the French experience
- Making the most of national time: Accountability, transparency, and term limits in the first Dutch Parliament (1796-1797)
- The invention of democratic parliamentary practices in the Helvetic Republic: Some remarks
- The Neapolitan republican experiment of 1799: Legislation, balance of power, and the workings of democracy between theory and practice
- 4 Press, politics, and public opinion
- Censorship and press liberty in the Sister Republics: Some reflections
- 1798: A turning point?: Censorship in the Batavian Republic
- Censorship and public opinion: Press and politics in the Helvetic Republic (1798-1803)
- Liberty of press and censorship in the first Cisalpine Republic
- 5 The Sister Republics and France
- Small nation, big sisters
- The national dimension in the Batavian Revolution: Political discussions, institutions, and constitutions
- The constitutional debate in the Helvetic Republic in 1800-1801: Between French influence and national self-government
- An unwelcome Sister Republic: Re-reading political relations between the Cisalpine Republic and the French Directory
- Bibliography
- List of contributors
- Notes
- Index
Summary
On 12 April 1798, 121 deputies gathered for the constitutive session of the first parliament in Swiss history in the small town of Aarau – a meeting place which was equally accessible from all regions of the country. To proclaim Aarau as the provisional capital of the new republic and as the seat of the first Helvetic parliament, however, had a highly symbolic significance, too. Only a few weeks before, the Federal Diet – a congress assembling representatives of the old power elites from the 13 sovereign republics of the Swiss Confederation – had met for the last time in the same town of Aarau without being able to prevent the dissolution of the Swiss ancien régime. The meeting of two fundamentally different representative assemblies convened in Aarau in such a short space of time marked the transition from premodern polity to a modern parliamentary system. Thus, within a few weeks Aarau had not only served as the burial ground of the Old Confederation, it also became the birthplace of the new Helvetic Republic.
The proclamation of the Helvetic Republic took place under circumstances that foreshadowed the serious problems the young republic was to encounter during its short lifetime. The new Helvetic state was the subject of great controversy among the population. Its constitution had not originated from a transparent and coordinated political process in the country. During the collapse of the old order in the first weeks of 1798, and before French troops had gained control over most parts of the Swiss territory in March 1798, dozens of small heterogeneous states had emerged from a domestic revolutionary process that led to the political emancipation of the former subject territories in the Swiss Confederation. Some of them had adopted the representative constitution elaborated by Peter Ochs, a sympathizer with the French Revolution and enlightened representative of the old Basel elite, during his stay in Paris around the beginning of 1798. Ochs had considered his constitution an interim arrangement, to be referred to until a Swiss constitutional assembly came into operation. In January 1798, Philippe Antoine Merlin de Douai and Pierre Claude François Daunou, the constitutional experts of the French Directory, adapted Ochs’ draft to the French constitution of 1795.
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- Information
- Political Culture of the Sister Republics, 1794–1806France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Italy, pp. 127 - 134Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2015