Politics, the People, and Extra-Institutional Participation in Scotland, c. 1603–1712

Datos Bibliográficos

ID10063296
AutoresKatherine Bowie (0000-0003-3643-5543, University of Glasgow, autor de correspondencia), Karin Bowie (autor de correspondencia), Alasdair Raffe
Año2017
Volumen56
Número4
Páginas797-815
Fecha de publicación2017-09-27
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of British Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0021-9371 • E-ISSN: 1545-6986
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/jbr.2017.119
OpenAlexW2624593049
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas36

This article examines popular political participation in early modern Scotland. In Scotland, some of the preconditions of public politics identified by recent scholars were less obviously present than in England or France. There was no culturally dominant metropolis or royal court; the volume of printed publications, though rising across the period, remained comparatively small. Because of these characteristics, historians of popular involvement in Scottish politics should pay particular attention to the traditional means of participation inherited from the medieval and Reformation periods. The article explores three forms of extra-institutional participation, each of which evolved out of formal, institutional political practices, but were deployed by ordinary Scots seeking to express their views. Protestations––formal statements of dissent from a statute or decision––developed in the courts, but were used in extramural contexts in the seventeenth century. Crowd demonstrations in towns took the place of traditional means of consultation, as urban government became increasingly oligarchical. And after congregational involvement in the appointment of parish ministers was legally instituted in 1690, significant numbers of small landowners and the landless poor claimed to have a say in the choice of their minister

Dissent · Government (linguistics · Political science · Politics · Poor relief · Poverty · Scots · Sociology · Statute · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Studies of British Isles · Law · Public Administration · Scottish History and National Identity