Professionals or decision-makers?: The agency of Dutch urban administrative officials, c. 1500-1700

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Název: Professionals or decision-makers?: The agency of Dutch urban administrative officials, c. 1500-1700
Autoři: Manger, Christian, den Hollander, Maurits
Zdroj: Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden / Low countries historical review. 140(3):25-47
Informace o vydavateli: Koninklijk Nederlands Historisch Genootschap, 2025.
Rok vydání: 2025
Témata: Urban Governance, Professionalisation, Officials, Bureaucracy, Institutions, SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
Popis: This article analyses the unique position of secretaries and pensionaries in the governments of cities in the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Northern Netherlands. At the centre of our analysis stands the tension which arose from the discrepancy between these officials’ extraordinary access to government knowledge and their formally subordinate and sometimes even foreign status. With particular attention for cases of conflict between these urban administrative officials and their ‘political’ superiors, this article explores the agency of secretaries and pensionaries in influencing urban governance through (informal) power, discretionary space, and influence on policy-making. This broad study argues that local context and individual networks provided urban administrative officials with considerable scopes of action, which adds a new facet to our understanding of late medieval and early modern governance in its day-to-day practice.
Druh dokumentu: Article
Jazyk: English
ISSN: 2211-2898
0165-0505
DOI: 10.51769/bmgn-lchr.19533
Přístupová URL adresa: https://research.tilburguniversity.edu/en/publications/cc196c09-15f8-4d03-bdde-cfb002a0602d
Rights: CC BY
Přístupové číslo: edsair.dris...01181..3a48cdb37ad722b79550539b8d662719
Databáze: OpenAIRE
Popis
Abstrakt:This article analyses the unique position of secretaries and pensionaries in the governments of cities in the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Northern Netherlands. At the centre of our analysis stands the tension which arose from the discrepancy between these officials’ extraordinary access to government knowledge and their formally subordinate and sometimes even foreign status. With particular attention for cases of conflict between these urban administrative officials and their ‘political’ superiors, this article explores the agency of secretaries and pensionaries in influencing urban governance through (informal) power, discretionary space, and influence on policy-making. This broad study argues that local context and individual networks provided urban administrative officials with considerable scopes of action, which adds a new facet to our understanding of late medieval and early modern governance in its day-to-day practice.
ISSN:22112898
01650505
DOI:10.51769/bmgn-lchr.19533