紀要論文

紀要論文

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Osaka University Law Review. 2024, 71, p. 25-62

The Myth of Individual Suffrage : The Voting Rights of Men, Women, and Households in the Netherlands in the Nineteenth Century

Graduate School of Law and Politics, Osaka University

英語

text

2024-02

Articles

The history of suffrage in the Netherlands between 1795 and 1917 is typically viewed through the lens of present-day liberal-individual political thought. Consequently, Dutch suffrage in the nineteenth century is mostly regarded as essentially individual, meaning that individuals were granted the right to vote and habitually exercised it. However, this ignores the fact that the family, or household, still formed the basis of the natural order of society. Paying taxes was an important requirement to qualify as a voter and in principle, the tax assessment was imposed on the household, not on the individual. If a family paid the minimum amount of taxes required, the head of the family had the right to vote. This was relevant for the suffrage of women, since they could also run a household, such as a widow or an unmarried woman living on her own. Indeed, until 1850, these women were frequently granted the right to vote as head of the family, although they could not always exercise it. To use this right, she had to authorise her eldest son. The fact that some women could vote until 1850 is also often ignored in Dutch historiography. In this article, we argue that these two issues, household suffrage and suffrage for women, were closely related. Essentially, universal suffrage for women was not possible in an electoral system based on the household, since the household was typically headed by a man. This conundrum was only solved in 1917, when universal male suffrage was granted on an individual basis and the decision was made to grant voting rights to women in the near future.

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The Myth of Individual Suffrage : The Voting Rights of Men, Women, and Households in the Netherlands in the Nineteenth Century

Graduate School of Law and Politics, Osaka University

英語

2024-02

Osaka University Law Review

71

25

62

https://hdl.handle.net/11094/94605