Constitutional Reform of 1848

The Constitutional Reform of 1848 (Dutch: Grondwetsherziening van 1848) laid the basis for the present system of parliamentary democracy in the Netherlands.

The House of Representatives obtained much more influence, and was now directly elected (although still by a restricted group of voters within a system of single-winner electoral districts).

The reform was in some sense a peaceful revolution, in which liberal politician Johan Rudolph Thorbecke and King William II played important roles.

[2] On 17 March 1848, the king appointed a state commission composed by Johan Rudolph Thorbecke (leader), Dirk Donker Curtius, Jacobus Mattheüs de Kempenaer, Lodewijk Caspar Luzac and Lambertus Dominicus Storm to prepare the Constitutional Reform, which was finished on 19 June.

Conservative Protestants initiated the April Movement in an attempt to prevent it, winning the sympathy of King William III.