State Communication And Public Politics In The Dutch Golden Age

State Communication and Public Politics in the Dutch Golden Age describes the political communication practices of the authorities in the early modern Netherlands. Der Weduwen provides an in-depth study of early modern state communication: the manner in which government sought to inform its citizens, publicise its laws, and engage publicly in quarrels with political opponents. These communication strategies, including proclamations, the use of town criers, and the printing and affixing of hundreds of thousands of edicts, underpinned the political stability of the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic. Based on systematic research in thirty-two Dutch archives, this book demonstrates for the first time how the wealthiest, most literate, and most politically participatory state of early modern Europe was shaped by the communication of political information. It makes a decisive case for the importance of communication to the relationship between rulers and ruled, and the extent to which early modern authorities relied on the active consent of their subjects to legitimise their government.

Selling the Republican Ideal details for the first time the political communication practices of the national, regional, and municipal authorities in the Dutch Republic. It is a ground-breaking study of how the early modern state sought to inform its citizens, publicise its laws, and engage publicly in quarrels with its political opponents.

De politieke denkbeelden van de rebellen in de Opstand (voorheen de Tachtigjarige Oorlog) zijn al langer onderwerp van wetenschappelijk onderzoek. Dit boek richt zich echter op het grotendeels onbesproken verhaal van het Habsburgse regime en zijn lokale aanhangers. Hoe dachten zij over het conflict en hoe reageerden zij op de beschuldigingen van de opstandelingen? De auteur heeft een verscheidenheid aan mondelinge, schriftelijke en theatrale media onderzocht om te ontdekken hoe het regime gebruikmaakte van de verschillende communicatiekanalen. Daarnaast is de reactie van gewone mensen op het conflict en op de tegenstrijdige berichtgeving in de publieke sfeer onderzocht.

The rebels of the Dutch Revolt, their political thoughts and the media they used to express them, have long been a focus of historical attention. This book, however, focuses on the largely untold story of what the other side, the Habsburg regime and its local supporters, thought about the conflict and how they responded to rebel accusations. To this end, a variety of oral, written and theatrical media have been examined to discover how the regime made use of the different communication channels available. In addition, available sources have been used to document ordinary people's response to the conflict and the various messages they encountered in the public sphere. The result is a study that sheds new and sometimes surprising light on the Habsburg regime's approach to communication and opinion-forming, while also providing a useful corrective to our understanding of rebel propaganda.

Traditionally, the Netherlands has enjoyed status as a test market for new media. But in the past decade, such innovations have been severely hampered by questions about the future of public broadcasting. This issue has led to abundant political grandstanding, but little in the way of definitive policymaking. In February 2005, the Scientific Council for Government Policy published a report with practical policy suggestions. Media Policy for the Digital Age summarizes the Council’s recommendations, giving readers outside the Netherlands insight into the issues at stake and possible solutions, as well as a concise analysis that tackles the challenges of making robust media policy for the twenty-first century.

Annotation. This title can be previewed in Google Books - http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN9789056294373.

This title was first published in 2001: Under the name of the "polder model", the Dutch model of democracy has received favourable attention from journalists, administrators and political leaders. This book presents a thorough analysis of Dutch democracy as a specimen of consensus democracy. The Dutch administrative tradition of consensus, consultation and compromise is reflected in current trends towards networks and new interactive technologies. This insightful account is an excellent resource for courses on European studies, comparative politics, public policy and administration.