You quoted me well Jaga, but I want to add something to that, because I wrote from my personal knowledge, experiance and subjective perspective with objective elements (encyclopedia sources and my experiance and knowledge of the Dutch political, economical, social-cultural and intellectuel history, development and presence). Another Dutchman would probably disagree with me and empathise the importance of the Dutch civilians (burger), farmers, middle class (the Netherlands is a middle class country), water engineers, and the liberal class of bourgeosie which became prominent and the dominant force in the second half of the 19th century, the beginning of the 20th century and today. With liberal in the European sense I mean the liberal-conservative, centre-right, moderate conservative, pro-free market, anti-socialist forces.
The politics of the Netherlands take place within the framework of a parliamentary representative democracy, a constitutional monarchy and a decentralised unitary state. The Netherlands is described as a consociational state. Dutch politics and governance are characterised by a common striving for broad consensus on important issues, within both the political community and society as a whole.
Political partiesThe system of proportional representation, combined with the historical social division between
Catholics,
Protestants,
Socialists (secular liberals in US perspective) and
Liberals (secular conservatives or moderate liberal-conservatives in US perspective) has resulted in a multiparty system. The major political parties are
VVD (Liberal-conservative),
PvdA (Social-democratic),
CDA (Christian-democratic),
SP (Socialist Party; leftwing socialist and populist and conservative too) and the
PVV (Freedom Party; anti-Islam populist party. opposition to immigration and European integration and populist socialism).
Next to that we have the smaller protestant, biblical, Calvinist and Evangelical parties (
ChristenUnie and
SGP), the
Animal party (animal rights and social politics oriented), the centre left social liberal
D66 and
GreenLeft (
GroenLinks=Green party) and a party for elders,
50PLUS.
Liberalism in the NetherlandsLiberalism has always been an important current in Dutch politics since
the Dutch Republic. Between mid-19th century to the late-1800 they were
a dominant force in shaping the Dutch parliamentary democratic rechtsstaat (
legal state). In the early 20th century the liberals split between
progressive liberals (Democrats in US perspective) and
conservative liberals (Republicans and conservative independent voters in US perspective). Due to their political division and the introduction of
universal suffrage the
liberals disappeared from the political stage. After the
Second World War the
liberals were united again under one roof, the
VVD (
Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy), but the party remained small. It entered some administration coalitions as a junior party. A progressive liberal party,
D'66 was founded in
1966. Since
the 1970s however
liberalism has been on the rise again electorally. Since
1977 the largest, more conservative, liberal party,
VVD has been in government for
twenty two years. In
early 21st century the
VVD saw
major splits over the issue of
integration and
migration. In
2010, they won
the national elections for the first time in its history.
Before 1918The Netherlands has a long liberal political tradition. From the founding of
the Dutch Republic in
the 16th century to beginning of
the 19th century the main political conflict was between
the liberal urban patriciate and
the supporters of the House of Orange, from
the lower class and
orthodox variants of Protestantism.
The urban patriciate favoured religious tolerance (
The Patriots with their Republican ideology).
In the early years of
the Kingdom of the Netherlands (1814–1848) the (conservative)
monarchists were in control. In
1848, while
revolutions swept through Europe, the balance of power shifted in favour of
the liberals. In order to prevent revolution in the Netherlands,
King William II of the Netherlands asked the Leiden professor of law,
Johan Rudolf Thorbecke, a
liberal, to draft
a new constitution.
King William II
Johan Rudolph Thorbecke (14 January 1798 – 4 June 1872), Dutch politician and statesman of Liberal signature, one of the most important Dutch politicians of the 19th century. (Comparable to the American Founding fathers in the Dutch perspective. You could actually call him the only Dutch Founding father, in the sense of his importance for the Dutch constitutional reform and parlaimentarian democracyThe new constitution limited
the power of the king by introducing
ministerial responsibility and by giving
parliament the right to amend laws and
hold investigative hearings. It also extended
the census suffrage and
codified civil rights, such as
the freedom of assembly,
the privacy of correspondence,
freedom of ecclesiastical organisation and the
freedom of education.
In
October 1848 the
constitution was adopted and in
1849 Thorbecke became
prime minister of the Netherlands. From that moment on
liberalism was the dominant political force in the Netherlands.
Thorbecke would be remain
a powerful liberal and
he was prime minister of the Netherlands three times until his death in 1872.
The liberals also dominated
the universities,
the media and
business. Because
the liberals were so dominant
they did not feel the need to organize themselves in a political party. Instead there was
a loose liberal parliamentary group and locally organized l
iberal caucuses.
The liberals also
did not organize their own pillar, a system of
like-minded social organizations.
The liberals were politically
allied with the Catholics, whom
the liberals granted
considerable freedom of religion.
In
the late 19th century the
socialists,
Protestants and
Catholics began to organize
their own political parties.
The liberals under pressure from these new groups followed suit. In
1885 they founded a
liberal party,
the Liberal Union. In
1893 it saw its
first split, in the progressive liberal
Radical League. In
1906 the
conservative liberals split to form
the League of Free Liberals. There are different names for these two tendencies. The more
progressive liberals have been called "
radical", "
freeminded" or "
democratic"
liberals, while the more
conservative liberals have been called "
free" or "
old"
liberals. The issue which divided
the liberals most was
the question whether to extend the census or even to introduce universal suffrage,
the progressive liberals favoured
universal suffrage,
the conservative liberals did not. The
progressive liberals also favoured
government intervention in the economy, such as
the ban on child labour proposed by
Samuel van Houten.
Samuel van Houten (February 17, 1837 – 14 October 1930) was a Dutch liberal politician. He became a minister in 1894 in the cabinet of Joan Röell. Van Houten introduced a law in 1874, Kinderwetje - van Houten (Children's Law), that forbade children younger than 12-year old to work as labourers in factories. It was the first social law of the Netherlands. Nonetheless, van Houten was a conservative and opposed further social laws and any egalitarianism by the state.Due to
the two round electoral system the
liberals were required
to cooperate. In order
to prevent the coalition of Catholics and Protestants win the second round of the elections, all
the liberals united behind their candidates in the second round, often joined by social democrats. This alliance was called
the concentration. On basis of
concentration pluralities, often supported by
social-democrats for a majority
several cabinets were formed in the early 20th century.
In
1917 under one of these
liberal minority cabinets universal male suffrage was introduced, as well as a proportional electoral system and equal finance for religious schools, this compromise was called the pacification of 1917.
The extension of suffrage however severely weakened the position of the liberals. Of
the 37 seats they had in
1917, they were l
eft with 14 in
1918.
The liberals didn't become the largest party again until 2010.
1918-1994 In
1922 the liberal parties reorganized: all
conservative liberals, from
the Liberal Union and
the League Free Liberals as well as more
conservative liberals from smaller parties, joined to form
the Liberal State Party.
The progressive liberals remained separate in
the Freeminded Democratic League, a merger of
the Radical League and
progressive liberals, that had already been formed in
1901. In
the interbellum (1919-1939) the
liberals grew even
smaller. Under pressure of
the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and
the rise of the National Socialist Movement.
The liberals did cooperate as junior partners in several cabinets in the crisis.
After
the Second World War the conservative liberal
Liberal State Party refounded itself as
Freedom Party. The progressive liberal
Freeminded Democratic League joined the new
Doorbraak (
Breakthrough) leftwing
Labour Party (PvdA). Several progressives were unhappy with the social-democratic course of
the PvdA and joined
the Freedom Party to found
the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy,
VVD, in
1948. (You could say that in the American perspective this would be the moderate, conservative-liberal wing of the Republican party)
The VVD remained a small party until
the 1970s, with about
10% of the vote. They did however form part of the government both in the grand coalition with
social-democrats,
Catholics and
Protestants in the
late 1940s early
1950s, and with
the Catholics and
Protestants over the course of the
1960s. The party was led by the former leader of
the Freeminded Democratic League (
VDB),
Pieter Oud. In the Dutch
pillarized political system the
liberals mainly appealed to
urban,
secular upper and middle class. The
liberals did not have a strong pillar of social organization, such as
trade unions and
news papers, like the other political families had. Instead they were aligned with the weak
neutral pillar.
In
1966 a radical democratic party was founded,
Democrats 66. In the foundation several
progressive liberals from the
VVD had been involved. The party sought to
radically democratize the political system,
the society and
the economy.
D66 was led by the charismatic
Hans van Mierlo.
D66 leader, Hans van MierloThe party joined forces with the social-democratic
PvdA and the progressive Christian
PPR (
Political Party Radicals) to work for a more
fair and
democratic Netherlands. The party participated in
the leftwing cabinet Den Uyl. Over the course of the
1980s however the party began to espouse a more
progressive liberal course, especially under
Jan Terlouw. The party remained an ally of
the PvdA however, joining a short-lived
centre-left coalition cabinet with
the PvdA and the Christian democratic
CDA in
1981.
Progressive liberal D66 leader Jan TerlouwIn the meanwhile
the VVD had grown considerably. Under the leadership of
Hans Wiegel the
VVD has taken
a more conservative course. The party began
to criticize the large and inefficient welfare state. The party combined this
economic liberalism with
progressive positions on
social issues, which characterized the
1970s, such as
abortion,
homosexuality and
women's rights.
The VVD capitalized the weakening of
religious affiliation and
depillarization of the
1970s and made considerable electoral gains: in
1967 the party won just over
10% in
1981 this had more than doubled to
23%.
The popular VVD leader Hans WiegelBetween
1982 and
1986 the
VVD cooperated in
the centre-right cabinets Lubbers, which implemented
a far reaching reform of the welfare state the
VVD had
advocated since the 1970s.
Prime minister Ruud LubbersAfter 1994In
1994 the Christian democratic
CDA lost its traditional electoral power base. The
VVD and
D66 won considerably. A progressive
purple cabinet was formed by
D66 (centre left), the
VVD (centre-right) and the
PvdA (Labour, centre-left). The cabinet managed
a thriving Dutch economy, implemented
progressive social legislation on
euthanasia,
gay marriage and
prostitution. In the 2002 election campaign
the purple coalition came under
heavy criticism of
the populist politician Pim Fortuyn for
mismanaging the public sector,
migration and
the integration of migrants. The two liberal parties lost considerably in the elections.
The populist politician Pim FortuynThe VVD however joined a coalition cabinet with
the heirs of Fortuyn and
the CDA. The cabinet fell shortly. After the
2003 elections the
D66 replaced
the LPF (
Fortuyn's political party).
The centre-right cabinet implemented
reforms of the
welfare state and oversaw
declining migration figures.
The issue of
migration and
integration however, and especially
the place of the Islam in the Netherlands. In
2003 the
VVD had invited social-democratic
critic of Islam,
Ayaan Hirsi Ali to join their parliamentary party. She together with
MP Geert Wilders caused considerable
controversy with her direct criticism of the Islam. In the cabinet
VVD minister
Rita Verdonk sought
to limit migration and
stimulate integration of minorities.
Islam critic, Ayaan Hirsi Ali in the Dutch parlaiment
VVD minister for Integration and Immigration, Rita VerdonkIn
2004 Geert Wilders left
the VVD to form the
Party for Freedom, which combined
uncompromising criticism of Islam with a plea for
lower taxation and
skepticism towards European integration. In 2006 a conflict between
Hirsi Ali and
Verdonk over her status as
an asylum seeker caused the downfall of the cabinet after the centre left, social liberal
D66 had revoked its confidence of
Verdonk, whose positions on migration the party had already distanced itself from.
In the
2006 general election the
VVD and
D66 lost considerably:
D66 lost three of its six seats, the
VVD six of its 28 seats.
Wilders' PVV won
nine seats.
Rita Verdonk, second on the list of
the VVD won more preference votes than the party's top candidate
Mark Rutte. After demanding the leadership of the party,
Verdonk left the VVD to form her own nationalist party,
Proud of the Netherlands. (
Trots op Nederland)
In the European parliament election of
2009, the
VVD and
D66 both won
3 seats each, while
PVV picked up
4 seats. The
PVV will be assigned the additional seat that becomes the Netherlands after the
Treaty of Lisbon is signed. The
VVD and
D66 joined
the Liberal fraction in the European Parliament, while
the PVV did not register as member of any fraction.
In the
2010 general election
the VVD became
the largest party with 31 seats, making
a liberal-led coalition a possibility for the first time since 1918, and
the PVV won
15 seats, increasing their number of seats from
9 to
24, becoming
the biggest winner of the 2010 elections. Also
D66 increased their number of seats to
10. Ultimately,
the VVD opted for a coalition with
the CDA, with
VVD leader Mark Rutte as prime minister—the first liberal to hold the post since
1918.
Today we have a
VVD-PvdA cabinet, with
Mark Rutte as prime minister. This is the second Rutte cabinet after a
VVD-CDA cabinet with the support of the
PVV fell due to the lack of support of the same
PVV.
