The dissertation deals with political culture in the Age of Liberty as it is manifested in the uprising in Dalarna in 1743. The object of the study is the political repertoire used by the peasants – a combination of utilisation of political institutions and different forms of protest such as tax boycotts and a march from Dalarna to the capital. Emphasis has been placed on the interactive aspects of the movement. Thereby, the repertoire used by central authorities to suppress the movement is equally important. Results show that the peasants formed their actions in close connection with the reactions they were met with by the authorities. Initially, the attempts to demobilise the peasants’ movement actually facilitated its mobilisation. As the peasants’ political repertoire is uncovered, it has been possible to study the movement’s mobilisation process through the use of mobilising structures, political opportunities, and interpretative processes. Hence, the significance of the uprising to the protesters is clarified. The protesters viewed their actions as part of an ongoing political debate, legitimised by the government’s neglect of its obligations towards the people, rather than as a subversive uprising. The Dalarna uprising of 1743 was an integral part of political culture in the Age of Liberty through its combined use of formal and informal political institutions and arenas. The uprising is an eloquent expression of the increasing political assertiveness among the peasantry and the peasant estate in Sweden in the eighteenth century.

The dissertation deals with political culture in the Age of Liberty as it is manifested in the uprising in Dalarna in 1743. The object of the study is the political repertoire used by the peasants – a combination of utilisation of political institutions and different forms of protest such as tax boycotts and a march from Dalarna to the capital. Emphasis has been placed on the interactive aspects of the movement. Thereby, the repertoire used by central authorities to suppress the movement is equally important. Results show that the peasants formed their actions in close connection with the reactions they were met with by the authorities. Initially, the attempts to demobilise the peasants’ movement actually facilitated its mobilisation. As the peasants’ political repertoire is uncovered, it has been possible to study the movement’s mobilisation process through the use of mobilising structures, political opportunities, and interpretative processes. Hence, the significance of the uprising to the protesters is clarified. The protesters viewed their actions as part of an ongoing political debate, legitimised by the government’s neglect of its obligations towards the people, rather than as a subversive uprising. The Dalarna uprising of 1743 was an integral part of political culture in the Age of Liberty through its combined use of formal and informal political institutions and arenas. The uprising is an eloquent expression of the increasing political assertiveness among the peasantry and the peasant estate in Sweden in the eighteenth century.

This thesis examines the role of national defence in British parliamentary politics between 1794 and 1812. It suggests that previous analyses of the late eighteenth-century political milieu insufficiently explore the impact of war on the structure of the state. Work by J.E. Cookson, Linda Colley, J.C.D. Clark, and Paul Langford depicts a decentralised state that had little direct involvement in developing a popular “British” patriotism. Here I argue that the threat of a potential French invasion during the wars against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France provoked a drive for centralisation. Nearly all the defence measures enacted during the period gave the government a much greater degree of control over British manpower and resources. The readiness of successive governments to involve large sections of the nation in the war effort through military service, financial contributions, and appeals to the British “spirit”, resulted in a much more inclusive sense of citizenship in which questions of national participation and political franchise were unlinked. National identity was also affected, and the focus on military defence of the British Isles influenced political attitudes towards the regular army. By 1810, however, the nation was disillusioned by the lengthy struggle with France. The result of lingering political weakness was that attention shifted from national defence onto domestic corruption and venality. The aftermath of the Irish Act of Union, too, demonstrated the limits of attempts to centralise the policy of the whole United Kingdom. Significantly, however, the debates over the relationship between the centre and the localities in the 1830s and 1840s, and the response to a new French invasion threat in the 1850s and 1860s, revived themes addressed during the 1790s and 1800s. The political reaction to the invasion threats between 1794 and 1812 ultimately had more in common with a Victorian state bureaucracy than an eighteenth-century ancien régime.