Publication at Faculty of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts |
2020
Abstract
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 The author relies extensively on unpublished sources.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.