The Dutch ‘City Republics'

Like so many cities in the Dutch Republic, Dordrecht in the 1780s was the scene of heated debates. There were publications and petitions in abundance. In 1784, an anonymous enemy of what he himself described as slavish compulsion and anarchy plunged into the debate with a Voorstel aan Dordrechts burgerij (A Proposal for Dordrecht's Citizenry). ¹ Like many other authors, he saw the Republic as an unstable regime. The risk was that the most important political functions would be monopolized by a small number of families who would, by the very nature of things, take little notice of the will of the people. Even Dordt, as Dordrecht was known, which had already had a ‘free city government’ since the thirteenth century, would not have escaped this danger. ² This was despite the fact that the old constitution of the city contained guarantees to prevent this. The most important safeguard was the input of the deans (chairmen) of the guilds in the election of members of the municipality. These men were considered to be representatives of the entire citizenry. In addition, the city's Great Privilege stated that, annually, the deans would choose twenty-four people from citizens of good standing. From this number, the Count of Holland or his governor then chose the ‘Eight Good Men’ (Goede Mannen van Agten) to be representatives of the four neighbourhoods and a second form of Parliament. These eight continuously monitored the doings of the city government and warned their principals, the deans, when they observed malpractice. Thus, it was not without reason that the writer of the ‘Proposal’ indicated that the Dordt constitution was ‘a regulated popular government’ (eene geregelde Volksregering), in which it was stated that the people meant the members of all the guilds. However, the representative character of the Dordt administration was coming under pressure from the regents (members of the town council), who were whispering in the ears of the deans during the nominations for the ‘Eight Good Men’. Thus, the independence that formed the basis of the monitoring task with which the Eight were charged according to their instructions had been undermined.