Liberalism in Nineteenth Century Europe

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

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2. Introduction: Defining Liberalism

   1. Introduction: Defining Liberalism

      • Alan S. Kahan

      Pages 1-17

3. The Discourse of Capacity

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 19-19

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   2. Liberalism and Suffrage, 1830–47

      • Alan S. Kahan

      Pages 21-65

   3. Liberalism and Suffrage, 1848–65

      • Alan S. Kahan

      Pages 66-108

   4. Liberalism and Suffrage, 1866–85

      • Alan S. Kahan

      Pages 109-149

4. Language and Culture

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 151-151

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   2. The Discourse of Capacity in Context

      • Alan S. Kahan

      Pages 153-171

   3. The Decline of Liberalism

      • Alan S. Kahan

      Pages 172-192

5. Concluding Note: the Afterlife of a Political Discourse

   1. Concluding Note: the Afterlife of a Political Discourse

      • Alan S. Kahan

      Pages 193-201

6. Back Matter

   Pages 202-239

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'Votes should be weighed, not counted', Nineteenth-century liberals argued. This study analyzes parliamentary suffrage debates in England, France and Germany, showing that liberals throughout Europe used a distinctive political language, 'the discourse of capacity', to limit political participation. This language defined liberals, and they used it to define and limit full citizenship. The rise of consumer culture at the end of the century drove the discourse of capacity from politics, but it survives today in education and the professions.

• England
• Europe
• France
• politics

• Florida International University, Miami, USA

  Alan S. Kahan

ALAN KAHAN is Associate Professor of History at Florida International University, USA. He is author of Aristocratic Liberalism: The Social and Political Thought of Jacob Burckhardt, John Stuart Mill and Alexis de Tocqueville, Editor of The Tocqueville Reader, and translator of Tocqueville's The Old Regime and the Revolution.

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