The Tightrope Walk of the Dutch Nobility
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BETWEEN CONFORMING AND CONSERVING: THE TIGHTROPE WALK OF THE DUTCH NOBILITY Nina IJdens A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Science July 2017 Department of Sociology University of Amsterdam Supervisor: Dr. Kobe de Keere Second reader: Dr. Alex van Venrooij BETWEEN CONFORMING AND CONSERVING 1 Abstract Research has shown that the Dutch nobility has adapted to modernisation processes and continues to disproportionately occupy elite positions. This thesis builds on these findings by raising the question: (1) How does the Dutch nobility aim to maintain its high status position? Secondly, this thesis builds on a growing concern within studies of social stratification on how elite positions are legitimated in a highly unequal context. It investigates the nobility’s legitimation by raising the further questions (2a) How does the nobility legitimate itself through its organisations?; and (2b) How do members of the nobility justify their manifestation as a separate social group? The dataset consists of two sources: fourteen nobility organisations’ websites and fifty-two newspaper articles from 1990 until today, that contain interviews with members of the nobility. This research conducts a qualitative content analysis of these sources, looking for discursive hints of position maintenance, organisational legitimation, and justification. It shows that nobles maintain exclusive social networks that organise interesting networking opportunities; that the nobility copied modern organisational structures through which it could manifest itself as a social group; and that nobles justify their networks by appealing to a collective identity with a right to self-realisation. Moreover, the interviewees constantly both assert and downplay differences between themselves and the general public. They emphasise the nobility’s ordinariness, while also framing the separate noble identity as culturally valuable. Nobles have thus not only practically adapted to changing social circumstances, through engaging in certain practices, but they also morally adapt, by appealing to the norms and values of the audience that is to recognise and appreciate them, and by tapping into the discourse of identity politics. Keywords: nobility; reconversion; position maintenance; legitimation; justification BETWEEN CONFORMING AND CONSERVING 2 Contents Introduction: The Enigma of Modern Society .............................................................................. 3 The Dutch Nobility: A Brief History ........................................................................................................... 3 Research Questions ............................................................................................................................................ 4 TheoreticaL Framework ..................................................................................................................... 7 Position Maintenance ........................................................................................................................................ 7 Legitimacy ............................................................................................................................................................ 14 Research Design ................................................................................................................................. 19 Study Corpus ....................................................................................................................................................... 19 Content Analysis ............................................................................................................................................... 21 Research Findings .............................................................................................................................. 22 Position Maintenance ..................................................................................................................................... 22 Organisational Legitimation ....................................................................................................................... 33 Moral Legitimation .......................................................................................................................................... 42 Discussion ............................................................................................................................................ 52 References ........................................................................................................................................... 55 Appendix .............................................................................................................................................. 60 BETWEEN CONFORMING AND CONSERVING 3 Introduction: The Enigma of Modern Society Until the 1980s, many historians believed that European nobilities’ social power had officially dissipated, that their lifestyle had quickly and quietly disappeared in bourgeois society, and that the nobility as such no longer constituted a separate social group. The era between the French Revolution and WWII brought industrialization, democratization, and meritocratization – conditions under which the nobility could not possibly survive. Since the 1980s, and the appearance of Arno Mayer’s book The Persistence of the Old Regime (1981), more specifically, historiography has taken a turn. Mayer argued that the old regime lasted longer than historians liked to believe, and that traditional elites had since the French Revolution still managed to occupy elite positions in which they actively resisted modernisation processes. In other words, he argued that previous historiography of the nobility stressed rupture, while interesting continuities were overlooked. This thesis builds on the continuity approach in nobility research, by applying it to the Dutch nobility and raising the questions: how does the nobility attempt to maintain its position?; and how does it legitimate itself as a separate social group? The thesis is structured as follows. This introductory chapter sketches a brief history of the Dutch nobility and presents the research questions. In the second chapter I will lay out my theoretical framework, which includes relevant theories of position maintenance and legitimation. The third chapter describes my method of inquiry by outlining the research process, describing the data, and explaining coding and content analysis. Research findings are presented in the fourth chapter. The fifth chapter summarises conclusions of the research and reflects on the research, its theoretical framework, methods and findings. The Dutch NobiLity: A Brief History Nobilitation has historically been a tool for monarchs to bind powerful individuals to the state. As Montesquieu (2001/1748) stated: “no monarch, no nobility; no nobility, no monarch” (book 2, section 4, para. 2). During the middle-ages, nobility was granted to warriors and counsellors. These in turn constituted knighthoods that played an important role in political decision-making. With the establishment of the Dutch Republic in 1581, the old nobility kept its politically prominent position, yet new noble titles were not given out. With the invasion of the French revolutionary army in 1795, all noble privileges were abolished.1 Yet nobilitation 1 For an elaborate historical study of the nobility’s legal position, see Wolleswinkel (2012); see also Coenraad for a more concise overview (2004). BETWEEN CONFORMING AND CONSERVING 4 practices flourished again when the Dutch monarchy was established in 1814. William I (1772- 1843) and William II (1792-1843) vastly expanded the nobility, granting a title to those who had been meritorious to the nation. During the following decades, the Dutch nobility had “more influence than it had ever had in the Republic” (Bijleveld, 2015, p. 99). However, the revision of the constitution in 1848 officially brought an end to the nobility’s political privileges. In the following decades, the nobility still disproportionately occupied the highest political ranks (Kuiper, 2011), yet the 1919 introduction of universal suffrage again weakened the Dutch nobility’s position (Bijleveld, 2015). Finally, the twentieth century brought democratisation, informalisation, and increasing social mobility, which came to fruition in the growing wealth and political initiative of the middle classes. Status anxiety among old elites increased in this period of heightened interdependency (Bijleveld, 2015; Wouters, 2007b). The sixties and seventies brought a cultural revolution in which the established order and everything that reeked of elitism was publicly criticised. Finally, in 1994, the nobility was legally reduced to an ‘historical institute,’ yet people of noble descent kept the right – the plight, even – to bear a title or predicate. Kees Bruin (1992) writes that nobility titles “remain an affair that is difficult to rhyme with democratic thought2,i” (p. 121). Surely, he writes, adding ‘CM’ – criminal milieu – in the birth-certificates of ex-detainees’ children and grandchildren would cause public outrage (p. 122). Today, nobilitation can only occur through ‘elevation’, ‘incorporation’, or ‘recognition’. Elevation is reserved to new members of the royal family; incorporation denotes the nobilitation of nobles from a country with a similar nobilitation policy who apply for Dutch citizenship; and recognition refers to the nobilitation of people who can demonstrate