Contro l'onnipotenza della maggioranza. Il dibattito sul proporzionalismo in Belgio nella seconda meta del XIX secolo

The aim of this essay is to reconstruct the debate that developed in the second half of the 19th century in Belgium on the issue of proportional voting. In an era in which the advent of parties (especially the socialist one) and the enlargement of the vote opened the way for an increasingly «mass» politics in Europe, Catholics and Liberals of Brussels were in fact in the uncomfortable position of having to accept a change in the electoral system to ensure their survival in the face of the many challenges of modernity taken up by an increasingly restless reformist front.