Consensuspolitiek in Nederland: Een studie naar de politieke besluitvormingscultuur in de tweede helft van de twintigste eeuw

Doctoral Thesis

This thesis focuses on the political decision-making culture of the Netherlands in the second half of the twentieth century. The dominant view of this culture has been one of compromise cooperation and consensus. This view is strongly influenced by Lijphart’s 1968 book Politics of Accommodation. Since then, the extent to which this culture of consensus politics may have changed at the elite level is being debated. This study contributes to this debate by studying the parliamentary debates about some of the major socio-economic (social security) and ethico-religious issues (cremation, abortion and euthanasia). These debates have been characterized by studying the informal rules of the political game. Two sets of rules, corresponding to the dichotomy between consensus and majoritarian democracy, were used. An important observation is that the studied issues are difficult to position within the dichotomy of consensus and majoritarian politics. Only a few cases can be included, while...Show moreThis thesis focuses on the political decision-making culture of the Netherlands in the second half of the twentieth century. The dominant view of this culture has been one of compromise cooperation and consensus. This view is strongly influenced by Lijphart’s 1968 book Politics of Accommodation. Since then, the extent to which this culture of consensus politics may have changed at the elite level is being debated. This study contributes to this debate by studying the parliamentary debates about some of the major socio-economic (social security) and ethico-religious issues (cremation, abortion and euthanasia). These debates have been characterized by studying the informal rules of the political game. Two sets of rules, corresponding to the dichotomy between consensus and majoritarian democracy, were used. An important observation is that the studied issues are difficult to position within the dichotomy of consensus and majoritarian politics. Only a few cases can be included, while most cases do not fall into either category or have characteristics of both. This leads to the main conclusion that the political elites primarily act on the basis of their own political interests, and less with regard to higher normative notions that underlie the concept of consensus politics. Show less

Democracy

Consensus politics

Consensus democracy

Majoritarian democracy

Parliamentary debates

Dutch political history

Political rules

Political culture

Socio-economic debates