ABSTRACT
The Age of Revolution initiated fundamental changes in the nature of political debate in all the countries of northwest Europe. The world and language of politics were also changing on the periphery of northern Europe: the traditional monarchy was challenged by the strengthening of older and the rise of new oppositional discourses, which emphasized the involvement of the estates or ‘the people’ – or at least the most respectable elements of the realm – in political debate and decisionmaking side by side with the ruler and old elites. As a reaction, the established order was increasingly defended with arguments referring to the good of the people, even in absolutist monarchies.
