The Doelisten were an orangist civic movement in Amsterdam, named after its primary meeting location the Kloveniersdoelen (or 'de Doelen' in short), which opposed the power of the Amsterdam mayors in the summer of 1748.

The cause which led to the formation of the civil movement was an eleven articles long petition which circulated among the civil militia just after the Pachtersoproer. This petition, which historian Pieter Geyl called a 'decisive democratic program', advocated radical reforms to the functioning of the city's governing bodies such as the election of the vroedschap and directors of the East and West India Company by the citizenry.

Through the correspondence between agent of the English King Richard Wolters and the Rotterdam cake baker Laurens van der Meer, Stadholder Willem IV learned of the activities of the Amsterdam 'democrats'. He then sent Van der Meer to Amsterdam to get a better idea what was going on within the reformist movement. In Amsterdam, Van der Meer was introduced to the leaders of the radical movement, including Jean Rousset de Missy, Hendrik van Gimnig and Andries Boekelman, through an office clerk Jacob de Huyser. They indicated to Van der Meer that they intended to turn the city government upside down, without needing the stadtholder to do so.

At a later time, contact was re-established between Van der Meer and De Huyser. De Huyser invited Van der Meer to come back to Amsterdam, where they started working on an alternative petition comprising three articles. This petition contained much more moderate proposals: they demanded the transfer of the revenues of the postal administration to the region, an end to nepotism in the allocation of city posts, the restoration of the rights and privileges of the guilds and the election of the senior officers of the Civil Militia.

On August 9, the first public meeting took place at the Kloveniersdoelen. Both the radical eleven-article petition and the moderate three-article petition were to be presented this afternoon. Initially, the Doelisten occupied the Rondeel hall, but due to the great interest the radical Doelists had to move to the Grote Burgerzaal, where the literary society the Ridders van het Heelal was meeting at that time. Van Gimnig opened the meeting in the Grote Burgerzaal with a fiery speech full of references to a glorious past, the present of the decline of the Republic, the occupation by the French and the return of the stadtholder. This speech was intended to convince the public to support his eleven articles. Afterwards, he offered the petition for signature, which it is said that hundreds of people responded to. In the meantime, a smaller number of Doelisten of moderate origin had stayed behind in the Rondeel, where they discussed the three articles drafted by de Huyser and Van der Meer. When De Huyser decided to take their petition to the Grote Burgerzaal, he and his moderates reportedly did not stand out from the crowd.

It is only after Van der Meer managed to recruit the porcelain seller Daniël Raap for the moderate faction that they gained significant support. The charismatic Raap had already made important contributions to reformists in Amsterdam in November by, for example, devoting himself to making stadholdership hereditary and advocating to end the abuses regarding the distribution of government jobs. At the meeting at the Kloveniersdoelen of 10 August, he managed to convince a large part of the public with his speech of his criticism of the eleven-point petition and to convince them of the importance of the more moderate petition. In the days that followed Raap traveled up and down to The Hague for an interview with the stadtholder and his wife Princess Anna. He managed to get the support of the stadtholder and then 52 of the militia districts behind him for the three-article petition. On August 17, Raap, De Huyser and Ellie Chatin were summoned to the town hall where the mayors received the three articles of petition. The mayors asked the moderate leaders in exchange for considering the three-article petition to stop the meetings at the Kloveniersdoelen. Raap and his followers promised to do their utmost for this. However, Raap and his friends noted that they could not afford to suppress the radicals too hard at the risk of turning the mob against them.

On 21 August, the audience at the Kloveniersdoelen heard of the mayors' response to the three-article petition. The mayors had not, to their disappointment, made any commitment to implement any of the articles in the petition. This caused much anger at the meeting. More and more calls were made for violent protests and the overthrow of the city government. Raap and his followers had the greatest difficulty in subduing the crowd. Under pressure from the radicalizing voices at the Kloveniersdoelen, the mayors agreed to the three articles of appeal on 27 August. The next day, the vroedschap also agreed.

Meanwhile, the moderates managed to get a promise from the stadholder on 26 August to go to Amsterdam to restore order to the city. The radicals saw this as an excuse to choose representatives from the bourgeoisie who were to represent the interests of the burghers to the stadtholder. Although many moderates enthusiastically participated in the election, Raap and his moderate allies were vehemently against electing commissioners. Despite Raap's opposition, commissioners were elected in most of the 60 Amsterdam militia districts. These representatives regularly met at de Graaf van Holland inn.