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- Title
A French Legacy: The Transition from Collegiate to Bureaucratic Record-keeping in a Dutch Town, 1800-1900.
- Authors
Horsman, Peter J.
- Abstract
Initiated by political and administrative changes that started in 1795, record-keeping in the Netherlands underwent a metamorphosis. The alterations were greatly influenced by French practices during the period that the country was under French control and administration. However, many of the traditional record-keeping methods were preserved and mixed with the French practices. Local administrations, like those of the town of Dordrecht, seem largely to have escaped from French influence on their record-keeping. However, increasing paperwork enforced bureaucracy, and the bureaucracy imposed its administrative rules on the local political hierarchy, such as the city council and the committee of burgomaster and aldermen. The Dordrecht case study demonstrates how record-keeping moved from the primary process of decision making to become a bureaucratic specialty, which met the requirements of the bureaucracy itself rather than those of the political decision makers. The beginning of the twentieth century witnessed the birth of a formal record-keeping system, controlled by a specialized registry.
- Subjects
NETHERLANDS; POLITICAL change; PAPERWORK (Office practice); CITY councils; BUREAUCRACY
- Publication
Archivaria, 2005, Issue 60, p125
- ISSN
0318-6954
- Publication type
Article