Hedwig Richter. Moderne Wahlen: Eine Geschichte der Demokratie in Preußen und den USA im 19. Jahrhundert.

Extract

In her book Moderne Wahlen: Eine Geschichte der Demokratie in Preußen und den USA im 19. Jahrhundert (Modern Elections: A History of Democracy in Prussia and the USA in the Ninteteenth Century), Hedwig Richter does not focus on the history of democracy as its subtitle suggests, but on the history of election processes and the organization of elections. The reader will find a huge number of previously unknown details and interesting observations. The author relies extensively on unpublished sources. Some of her ideas are new and possibly controversial. Her thesis is that in the early years, governments were interested in elections as a means of controlling, disciplining, and supervising their populations. That is both innovative and debatable. The same can be said about her theory that Prussia’s three-class system was modern and innovative when it was first introduced (see, for example, 254). The reader will also find a useful and fascinating discussion of the debates over ballot secrecy, voting and racial segregation, and women’s suffrage, especially in the United States. Richter notes a close connection between nation building as a project of the elites and the right to vote as an instrument for legitimating their rule. In this context, the leading groups had to define who belonged to the nation (e.g., women, migrants, persons of color, and Poles). Richter focuses only on election procedures themselves. She is not interested in issues, personalities, or party programs. Her unconventional methodology opens up a new perspective on the history of the “Western” world. It is rather positive that the book contains a great number of fascinating pictures and contemporary cartoons.