ABSTRACT
In 1793, six years after the Patriots had been defeated in their efforts to give the Dutch Republic a popular government based on elections and representation, Johan Meerman launched an all-out attack on the theory and practice of democracy. Meerman, who was a high-ranking civil servant, an erudite historian, a renowned book collector, and a tireless international traveler, was deeply worried about the unprecedented political unrest manifesting itself in both his own country and in France. The basic reason for the inevitable descent of a democratic republic into political slavery was the fact that most people were unfit to rule themselves. The Batavian debates on the nature of election-based representation reflected what Hannah Pitkin has called 'the central classic controversy' about the nature of political representation. The Batavian revolutionaries were convinced that representation was inextricably linked with elections and that a large part of the adult male population had the right to participate in such elections.
