Equal Under Procedure? Implementation of Enlightened Reforms and the Egalitarisation of Society, 1750–1850

In historiography, enlightened reforms are usually perceived as a predecessor of political reforms, which in the nineteenth century brought at least partial religious, cultural, but mainly civil equality, thus creating conditions for subsequent political participation of larger numbers of citizens. Enlightened reforms applied to the population as a whole, regardless of existing stratification into estates. In some cases – such as reforms of criminal law, modifications of the situation of serfs, or various measures modifying monastic and religious life – the removal of privileges afforded to certain groups and estates was an explicit intention of these reforms. In other cases, the inclusion of the whole society was a necessary by-product (e.g., in reforms of healthcare and police). 

The workshop ‘Equal Under Procedure?’ shall focus on the egalitarisation potential of those reforms or interventions in the life of society which were not primarily intended to bring about social emancipation. Our starting point is a belief that measures such as general introduction of inoculations or passports were not just based on certain ideas about society or population but could have a significant secondary impact on (re)production of social relations or the way society’s members perceived and implemented their position within it. The central question of the workshop is whether the intended subjection of various groups and strata of society to various measures and administrative procedures actually had an impact on their egalitarisation not only with respect to the official authority or state but also with respect to their further social behaviour and self-perception. More broadly, the workshop intends to investigate the relations of various social groups and particular reform measures researched under a micro-historic perspective. Its aim is, among other things, to explain the ambiguity of this relation: for example, while nobility, and members of the upper classes in general, in some cases (such as inoculation) led the way, in other cases (the numbering of houses, passports) they tended to resist. The broadest framework on the workshop is a hypothesis about the genesis of a (modern) state to the effect that in such a state, the central powers establish an immediate information relation with all its inhabitants and subject them all to the same procedures. We shall naturally be also interested to see whether access to these procedures was in some way limited and if so, whether this modern treatment by authorities produced new inequalities. 

The intention of the workshop is to provide researchers who deal with various aspects of Enlightenment state policies with an opportunity to investigate the impact of these reforms on the egalitarisation of society. The intention is not to limit the subjects of contributions to Enlightenment in the strict sense of the word, that is, ending, e.g., by the arrival of European Restoration in 1815. We equally welcome contributions dealing with the modernisation of society until 1850.