Governance and Politics of the Netherlands, Second Edition (Comparative Government and Politics)

Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 8
List of Maps, Boxes, Figures and Tables......Page 12
Preface to the Second Edition......Page 14
Preface to the First Edition......Page 16
A 'small' country......Page 18
The struggle against the water......Page 20
The boundaries of language and religion......Page 22
The political boundary......Page 23
Constitutional development......Page 26
Minorities......Page 36
Two cleavages......Page 39
Pillarization......Page 40
Consociational democracy......Page 45
Alternative interpretations......Page 50
Depillarization......Page 53
The absence of new cleavages......Page 56
The consequences of depillarization......Page 58
Parties and consociational democracy......Page 62
The numerical criterion......Page 63
Party families......Page 65
Christian Democrats......Page 66
Socialists......Page 68
Liberals......Page 70
A particular shade of Green......Page 71
Populist/extreme right......Page 72
Other parties......Page 73
Dimensionality......Page 74
Party organization......Page 79
Party membership......Page 82
Party finances......Page 84
Campaign finance......Page 87
A decline of parties?......Page 88
Political participation......Page 91
Few shall be chosen......Page 94
The simple act of voting......Page 95
Absence of geographical representation......Page 97
Extreme proportionality......Page 99
Reforming the electoral system......Page 100
Candidate selection......Page 105
Campaigning......Page 109
Television and election campaigns......Page 111
From a structured to an open model......Page 114
Ideology and issues......Page 117
Economy......Page 122
Party leaders......Page 123
The (wo)man or the message?......Page 125
Conclusion......Page 126
Building the governing coalition......Page 127
Procedures of cabinet formation......Page 128
Critique and attempts at reform......Page 132
Coalition theory and Dutch cabinets......Page 135
The position of prime minister......Page 139
The politicization of the core executive......Page 142
Separation of powers within a parliamentary system......Page 147
The structure of parliament......Page 149
Parliamentary procedures......Page 153
From institution to arena......Page 156
Parliament as a marketplace......Page 159
The coexistence of institution, arena and marketplace......Page 160
Parliament and the people......Page 164
Corporatism......Page 166
Organized interests......Page 167
PBO and advisory councils......Page 169
Changes in corporatism......Page 171
The sources of corporatism......Page 173
The bureaucracy......Page 176
Judicial policy-making......Page 181
Conclusion......Page 187
Provincial government......Page 189
Local government......Page 191
Europeanization......Page 196
Strengthening coordination......Page 197
Strengthening the core executive......Page 201
A double democratic deficit......Page 203
Between Dutch disease and Dutch miracle......Page 204
Open economy......Page 205
The Dutch disease......Page 208
The Dutch miracle......Page 213
Reducing wage costs and creating jobs......Page 214
Other curative measures......Page 216
New challenges......Page 218
Conclusion......Page 221
The constants of Dutch foreign policy......Page 222
Farewell to Atlanticism?......Page 223
European integration vs Atlantic orientation?......Page 227
Interests vs idealism?......Page 232
The ambitions of a small player......Page 235
Fragmentation and horizontal coordination......Page 237
The consequences of consensus......Page 239
Public confidence in the political system......Page 242
Attempts at reform......Page 245
The future of consensus government......Page 249
Further Reading......Page 253
Bibliography......Page 257
B......Page 271
C......Page 272
D......Page 273
F......Page 274
I......Page 275
L......Page 276
O......Page 277
P......Page 278
S......Page 279
V......Page 280
Z......Page 281