Wim Blockmans is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History at the University of Leiden, The Netherlands. His previous publications include the co-editing of The Routledge History Handbook of Maritime Trade around Europe 1300–1600 (2016).

• 1 Historical roots of political voice Voice and representation A unique achievement Continuity? 9The state of research Terminology Theoretical points of departure Political participation today This book 2 The playing field is demarcated: Communities and political landscapes Increasing differences in development The geographic environment The formation of political units from a dominant core The imperial obsession Alliances of free communities Coasts, rivers and land masses The political geography The playing field 3 The players: The formation of political communities Estates and their representation The first estate: the clergy The second estate: the nobilityPeace movements Precedence Concentration of power Counsel and action England: the early kingdom Dynastic wars, bad kings and rebellious barons Balances of power: Catalonia and Aragon Dynastic discontinuity Castile and León Brabant and Castile The leading actors 4 Game changers: The third estate makes itself heard The Italian polyarchy The astonishing North The social composition of the Tuscan population The Papal States The South Balances of power Popular sovereignty in Flanders Commercial interests Peasants’ voice The common concern for water management in the Low Countries Core concepts in the political debate The triangular relationship: prince, nobility, cities 5 Within the lines: Institutionalized political voice The vulnerability of princes The Iberian cortes and Languedoc Abuse of power and tyranny in England Political voice on war Representation of the land? City leagues in the German realm The microcosm of the Low Countries From the Meuse region urban league to the land of Liège The first socio-political revolution: Flanders From city leagues to the Brabant constitutional tradition Estates and princely ambitions Contrasts Expansion and emancipation 6 Spectators invade the pitch The first religiously inspired revolution: Bohemia The bourgeois revolution in the Low Countries Church and religion as sources of division The first sovereign popular representation Religious polarization in the German realm Elective kings and regional power in central Europe Poland Hungary Swiss Confederation Seizure of power by the privileged in France Republics among monarchies The Reformation as catalyst 7 Distribution of gain and loss Societies in figures Numbers of people and concentrations Composition of the population Forms of aristocratic rule in central and eastern Europe Balances of power in the Holy Roman Empire A dramatic case: Saxony Estate members as brokers in the French periphery The subjugation of Catalonia and the ‘long sleep’ of Iberia Conclusion 8 The champions and the excluded Sovereign republics Revolution turning into oligarchy: the United Provinces England and the United Kingdom: the monarchical republic The bloody road to a constitutional monarchy The consolidated Parliament Sweden, a separate case The formative period Royal voluntarism and parliamentary opposition Political parties Colonies and the other excluded Ireland North America Ascending and descending power 9 Conclusions: Participation versus Effectiveness A dash of political anthropology Phases of expansion and contraction Political voice? Concerning what? The developmental phase, 1100–1350 Consolidation and trials of strength 1350–1600 Constitutional representation or fiscal-military monarchy, 1600–1848 The fundamental dynamics Emancipation and stagnation Representation from below State power Institutional inertia The continuity of political cultures General bibliography, Index

'[...] he aims to find an explanation for the way in which political participation has or has not taken shape over the centuries and in different places [the liberal revolutions before and after 1800].'Lauren Lauret, the low countries, 2024 - https://www.the-low-countries.com/article/the-struggle-for-political-participation-is-never-over