Petitions, Parliament and Political Culture: Petitioning the House of Commons, 1780-1918*
Petitions, Parliament and Political Culture: Petitioning the House of Commons, 1780-1918*
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请愿、议会和政治文化：向下议院请愿，1780-1918 年*
DOI：
10.1093/pastj/gtz061
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发表时间：
2020
期刊：
影响因子：
1.8
通讯作者：
Huzzey R
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Huzzey R
本文分析了下议院收到的近一百万份请愿书，揭示了一种重塑现代英国和爱尔兰政治文化的请愿文化。它认为，首先，请愿提供了一个更经常和连续的形式，人民和议会之间的互动比选举。第二，请愿-即起草、签署和提交请愿书的相关活动-促成了一个充满活力、具有表演性的公共政治。第三，请愿和请愿是相对开放的，包容性的政治参与形式，因为所有英国臣民都享有正式的请愿权。我们研究了强大的群众动员运动的作用，但也被边缘化的个人卑微的呼吁。我们的数据对我们理解这一时期政治的国有化、组织化和大众化具有重要意义。我们认为，关注请愿书有助于我们分散议会选举作为地方和国家政治之间的主要联系。事实上，请愿者在决定向哪个当局请愿时，对中央政府和地方政府之间不断变化的界限作出了反应。请愿运动开创了群众性的、有组织的、全国性的运动，这些运动将逐渐成为强大政党的标志。这并不妨碍请愿。然而，随之而来的纪律严明的政党的增长加强了行政权力，以牺牲议会政府为代价，改变了下议院的请愿。此外，随着选举权的扩大，请愿活动不断扩大，这表明请愿活动并没有起到反复无常的投票的作用。相反，议员和请愿者之间关于签名者名单不断增加的意义的请愿和辩论表明，请愿促进了一系列其他形式的参与，从而形成了一个越来越受欢迎的政治。
This article analyses nearly one million petitions received by the House of Commons to reveal a culture of petitioning that recast the political culture of modern Britain and Ireland. It argues, first, that petitions provided a much more regular and continuous form of interaction between people and Parliament than elections. Second, petitioning–meaning the practices associated with the drafting, signing and presentation of petitions–enabled a vibrant, performative public politics. Third, petitions and petitioning were relatively open, inclusive forms of political participation since all British subjects enjoyed the formal right to petition. We examine the role of formidable campaigns of mass mobilisation, but also humble appeals of marginalised individuals. Our data has significant implications for our understanding of the nationalisation, organisation, and popularisation of politics in this period. We argue that attention to petitions helps us to decentre parliamentary elections as the principal connection between local and national politics. Indeed, petitioners responded to the shifting boundaries between the central and devolved state in deciding to which authorities they would direct petitions. Petitioning campaigns pioneered the mass, organised, national movements that would gradually emerge as the hallmark of stronger political parties. This did not undermine petitioning. However, the consequent growth of disciplined parties strengthened executive power, at the expense of parliamentary government, redirected petitions from the Commons. Furthermore, the continuing expansion of petitioning alongside extensions of the franchise suggests that petitions did not function as an ersatz ballot. Rather, petitions and debates between parliamentarians and petitioners over the meaning of growing lists of signatories suggest that petitioning catalysed a range of other forms of participation and hence forged an ever more popular politics.