Tweeënvijftig staatssecretarissen

Abstract

Since 1948 state secretaries may be appointed to Dutch ministries. The purposes of establishing and maintaining this institution are: 1 to assist the ministers and to alleviate their tasks without increasing the number of cabinet ministers or the number of ministries, while retaining the consistency of government policy; 2 to train future ministers; 3 to obtain political balance in a government consisting of a coalition of several political parties. So far, fifty-two state secretaries have been appointed to ninety posts termed state secretaries. A survey of publicly available material shows that the three aims mentioned above were realized to a certain degree. The increase in the number of ministries was slight. Special tasks within the ministries are performed by a state secretariat (e.g. matters of taxation within the ministry of finance, and public health affairs within the ministry of social affairs and public health). Of the nine state secretaries to become ministers at a later date, two eventually became prime minister; only one began his political career in parliament, and three entered a political party at about the time of their first appointment as state secretary. Many state secretaries obtained experience in matters of public government and policy outside parliament, but not much is known about party-political careers. None of the state secretaries filled different state secretariats in succession. Five of them, became ministers in another ministry. The aim of ’political balance’ has been given increased attention since the formation of the De Quay cabinet (1959). The majority of state secretaries was appointed from that time on, while attempts were made to find active party members for the posts concerned. There is no evidence that any one of these three, sometimes conflicting, aims superseded the others.