Political representation in the ancien régime / edited by Joaquim Albareda and Manuel Herrero Sánchez.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Enterprising politics or routine dealings? : political participation in Europe before 1800 / Wim Blockmans -- Political representation in Languedoc under the ancien régime / Gilbert Larguier -- Representation : political foundations of the French province, 15th-18th century / Marie-Laure Legay -- The administration of French villages by their inhabitants in the modern age / Antoine Follain -- Governing in a republican state : a case study of Genoa from medieval to modern times / Carlo Bitossi -- Political representation and symbolic communication in the early modern period : the imperial cities of the Holy Roman Empire / Thomas Weller -- Representation in the Scottish Parliament to 1707 and Scottish representation in the Parliament of Great Britain to the 1832 Reform Act / John R. Young -- Constitution and political representation in the Crown of Aragon / Tomás de Montagut -- Political representation in the Kingdom of Aragon during the ancien régime / Gregorio Colás Latorre -- Political representation in the Kingdom of Valencia during the modern period (16th-18th century) / Carmen Pérez Aparicio -- Political representation in the Kingdom of Sardinia in the modern period : entry in force and retrospection on the pact-based culture / Lluis J. Guia Marín -- Political participation in Catalonia : from zenith to suppression / Joaquim Albareda -- The configuration of the Tribunal de Contrafaccions of Catalonia in the Corts of 1701-1702 / Josep Capdeferro -- The Conferència dels Comuns in Catalonia (1656-1714) : a new form of representation and political participation / Eduard Martí -- The multiple faces of representation : kingdom, cortes and estates in the Crown of Castile under the Habsburgs / José Ignacio Fortea Pérez -- Municipal representation in the Crown of Castile in the early modern age / José Manuel de Bernardo Ares -- Political participation and representation in the Basque country / Susana Truchuelo -- Urban republicanism and political representation in the Spanish monarchy / Manuel Herrero Sánchez.

"What kind of political representation existed in the Ancien Régime? Which social sectors were given a voice, and how were they represented in the institutions? These are some of the issues addressed by the authors of this book from different institutional angles (monarchies and republics; parliaments and municipalities), from various European territories and finally from a connected and comparative perspective. The aim is twofold: analyse the different mechanisms of political representation before Liberalism, their strengths and limitations; value the processes of oligarchisation and the possible mismatch between a libertarian model and a reality which was far from its idealised image"-- Provided by publisher.