Differentiation has evolved into a systematic feature of European integration. Still, EU member states have been eager to maintain unity and not let differentiated integration (DI) be reflected in... Show moreDifferentiation has evolved into a systematic feature of European integration. Still, EU member states have been eager to maintain unity and not let differentiated integration (DI) be reflected in institutions and processes of EU governance. The sovereign debt crisis was a turning point, triggering an unprecedented reinforcement of euro area specific institutions and policies. So far, few contributions have studied the institutional implications of DI in the EU. This dissertation examines whether and, if so, how and with what implications DI has been institutionalised in EMU governance. It analyses the organisational inclusiveness of crisis management structures, the evolution of the Eurogroup and Eurogroup Working Group, procedural norms and elite ideas. The findings suggest that the distinction between euro area insiders and outsiders has become embedded in how member state representatives perceive political reality, determine mutual role expectations and organise governance processes. While this institutionalisation of DI in EMU was facilitated by particular circumstances of the sovereign debt crisis, its implications are evident in EMU governance and reform processes until today. The dissertation makes theoretical and empirical contributions to account for DI in institutional and political developments in EMU and, thus, aims to enrich institutionalist debates in EU studies. Show less
Cooperation between central banks has been crucial for stabilising the international financial system during the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 and the COVID-19 crisis in 2020. For students of... Show moreCooperation between central banks has been crucial for stabilising the international financial system during the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 and the COVID-19 crisis in 2020. For students of international political economy, understanding why and how central banks cooperate is thus a highly relevant concern. This doctoral dissertation studies central bank cooperation in Europe during and after the Global Financial Crisis. It is based on 25 elite interviews, original archival material and other primary and secondary sources. It reconstructs how central banks came to the decision to conclude credit lines with one another, engaged in Balance-of-Payments assistance programmes, and built new regional institutions to coordinate crisis management and macroprudential policy measures. It finds that central banks motivated their decisions to cooperate not merely on the expected consequences of their actions, but also on their perceptions of appropriateness. Bilateral cooperation was often motivated by norms, such as solidarity, rather than being based predominantly on self-interest; regional financial governance takes the form of inclusive deliberations and consensus-building, rather than clashing national interests. These findings support the conclusions that central banks’ agency, and the ideas that guide their behaviour, need to be better understood to grasp the dynamics of international monetary cooperation. Show less
This dissertation focuses on an understudied yet common phenomenon: the youth wings of political parties. As Western democracies are characterised by party-related political change, the question is... Show moreThis dissertation focuses on an understudied yet common phenomenon: the youth wings of political parties. As Western democracies are characterised by party-related political change, the question is whether the functioning of party youth wings has changed over time. This study compares the functioning of Dutch party youth wings in the years 1985-1990, a period on the eve of major political changes, with the recent years 2014-2020. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, it provides insight into the ability of party youth wings to mobilise, represent and socialise young people into the political system. Show less
Government has a special responsibility for its military. This research is about the care of veterans by government, parliament and society in the period 1945-2015. Therein the central matter is... Show moreGovernment has a special responsibility for its military. This research is about the care of veterans by government, parliament and society in the period 1945-2015. Therein the central matter is the development of the Dutch veteran policy (1945-2015) and in which way did the government met its responsibilities? To answer the main question, the theory of civil-military relations was used as a theoretical framework. This civil-military relationship concernsthe relationship between society and armed forces as well as the relationship between government and armed forces. Which roles did parliament and society fulfil in the care for veterans? Using six military missions, we researched in what ways the government met their duty of care towards (ex-)military personnel in practice before, during and after a mission.Until 1990 the government had no definition for a ‘veteran’. The military personnel who were deployed in the Dutch East Indies, Korea and the Lebanon as well as smaller missions, did not have veteran status before 1990.When viewing the period 1945-2015, we can conclude that the government did not meet fully its special responsibility to its veterans. Show less
There are very few states in the world, if any, that are in full compliance with human rights norms. Instead, states tend to comply with some articles of a human rights treaty extensively, only up... Show moreThere are very few states in the world, if any, that are in full compliance with human rights norms. Instead, states tend to comply with some articles of a human rights treaty extensively, only up to certain extent with some, and openly violate others. Up to now, we have not been able to unravel these patchworks of compliance. This study presents a political dialogue model to start this process of unraveling. It shows how political decision-makers create patchworks of compliance, as they need to mediate between the mismatching norms of different national and international communities. When successful, such dialogues allow decision-makers to make small improvements in human rights compliance. However, when communities are not sufficiently represented in the dialogue or their norms are being violated, harmful backlash effects against human rights can develop. This study has a mixed-methods approach. It analyzes the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in a global quantitative study and two in-depth case studies of Jordan. Show less
The Ecuadorian party, Movimiento Unidad Plurinacional Pachakutik (MUPP or Pachakutik), is a 24-year-old party with low levels of electoral support and scarce resources. Conventional theories of... Show moreThe Ecuadorian party, Movimiento Unidad Plurinacional Pachakutik (MUPP or Pachakutik), is a 24-year-old party with low levels of electoral support and scarce resources. Conventional theories of party survival cannot explain this party’s persistence. Common wisdom predicts parties with both consistently low levels of electoral support and lack of resources will disband, but Pachakutik does not. Why do parties with low electoral support and few resources persist? This dissertation addresses that question and introduces a theory of party survival that focuses on why parties may choose to survive, change, or disband. Parties can persist if they achieve their primary goal, and this may happen even when a party has scarce resources and low (or fluctuating) levels of electoral support. Parties pursue different primary goals – policy, office, or value-infusion – and, as such, evaluate goal achievement differently (in terms of their own aspiration levels based on prior performance). The case of Pachakutik illustrates this theory and its mechanisms. This dissertation combines qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis and rests on archival data, interviews, and quantitative data collected during over 11 months of fieldwork in Ecuador. Show less
This thesis investigated the extent to which types of civil service appointments shape the attitudes and behaviour of civil servants in neo-patrimonial settings, with a focus on the Ghanaian... Show moreThis thesis investigated the extent to which types of civil service appointments shape the attitudes and behaviour of civil servants in neo-patrimonial settings, with a focus on the Ghanaian experience. Despite the theoretical view in public administration literature about the consequences of the type of a civil servants’ appointment on his/her attitude and behaviour, the empirical data is marginal in emerging democracies such as Ghana. Regarding the attitudes and behaviour of concern, the study focused on the level of bureaucrats’ autonomy, loyalty and responsiveness. To investigate this phenomenon, the study adopted a mixed-method approach to understand why civil servants, despite their apolitical cloak, demonstrate varied attitudes and behaviour in contravention with their professionalism and, in particular, determine how their type of appointment influenced such attitudes and behaviour. The findings confirmed the study’s hypothesis that the type of a bureaucrats’ appointment into the bureaucracy indeed influenced his/her attitudes and behaviour. However, further analysis of this finding impugned mainstream discourses regarding the expected impact of types of appointment. For example, the study found that regardless of how merit-based the process of appointing a bureaucrat is, his/her autonomy is limited in Ghana. Secondly, whilst the general theoretical predictions concerning patronage and hybrid appointments’ impact on loyalty and responsiveness were confirmed respectively, the findings also suggest that such loyalties and responsiveness are not absolute, due to regulatory mechanisms and competing interests. Furthermore, this study’s findings support the class of scholars who call into question the orthodox view in bureaucratic politics that patronage is damaging because this study finds otherwise. It therefore adds to discussions on the need to move beyond the monistic conception of patronage as negative to encompass its beneficial outcomes. The study also proposes legal-constitutional and policy reforms that go beyond the merit-principle to embrace patronage and hybrid considerations where necessary. Show less
More and more anti-establishment parties succeed in elections at the expense of their established competitors in contemporary European democracies. However, a large proportion of these parties fall... Show moreMore and more anti-establishment parties succeed in elections at the expense of their established competitors in contemporary European democracies. However, a large proportion of these parties fall apart and disappear as quickly as they appear. What is the relationship between the way these parties organize and their electoral performance? This dissertation proposes a framework to explain the role of organizational features such as local party branches, party membership and party elites in this process. It argues that these features facilitate party stability, cohesion and legitimacy and, as a consequence, parties do better at elections. A single case study explores these relationships in the case of the Czech party ANO, and is then complemented by a comparative analysis of three other anti-establishment parties. The dissertation argues that party organization matters for the electoral success of anti-establishment parties. The control of local branches´ autonomy, restrictions on party membership and professional links between party elites help new anti-establishment parties to present themselves as cohesive and legitimate entities. In the case of ANO, this effect is further strengthened by the infiltration of its party organization by the structures of the business-firm owned by the party leader. Show less
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... 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
In this book, the central question is what the causes and consequences of intra-party preference voting are. Four different aspects of intra-party preference voting are studied: the effects of... Show moreIn this book, the central question is what the causes and consequences of intra-party preference voting are. Four different aspects of intra-party preference voting are studied: the effects of specific electoral rules on preference voting; the voters who cast a preference vote; the candidates who receive them; and the consequences of those preference votes. Three main conclusions are drawn: that in the absence of a the option to cast a party vote a vote for another candidate is not necessarily a true candidate vote; that ideology does not play a role when it comes to the intra-party competition; and that preference votes have limited consequences for the career and behaviour of politicians. Show less
How does question design regarding non-substantive response options affect survey outcomes? This research question, and specifically the effect of using non-substantive response options – the Don’t... Show moreHow does question design regarding non-substantive response options affect survey outcomes? This research question, and specifically the effect of using non-substantive response options – the Don’t Know option, filter question and follow-up question – on item nonresponse and the substantive overall distribution of opinions was examined by conducting three experiments with three Dutch internet panels (the LISS panel, the EenVandaag Opiniepanel and Team Vier’s internet panel). The effect of offering a non-substantive response option is that item nonresponse changes, but not the resulting picture of public opinion in terms of majorities or pluralities. The effect of a non-substantive response option for substantively different issues was expected to vary per the relation to a major political dimension (resulting in less item nonresponse) or to foreign policy issues (resulting in more nonresponse). The results were mixed; more research is needed to differentiate between question content. The follow-up question, which differentiates between permissive and directive opinions, resulted in about two-third of the respondents expressing a directive opinion, which was more than expected. The main recommendation is to start including the most basic non-substantive response option, the explicit Don’t Know option, as a response category for opinion questions. Show less
How do political parties respond to heavy electoral defeat, and why do different parties respond in different ways? This question has become all the more relevant now that it seems more the... Show moreHow do political parties respond to heavy electoral defeat, and why do different parties respond in different ways? This question has become all the more relevant now that it seems more the rule than the exception for at least one party to lose heavily at any election. This dissertation aims to build a new model to explain the choices made by parties in response to heavy electoral defeat. Studying four cases in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, it reaches a number of new insights on party change. It turns out that parties under pressure are not just in a struggle for power or in a question for their primary goals, but also in a continuous conversation with the party’s own past. The degree of attachment to the electoral base and the party ideology have a significant impact on the preferences of parties for dealing with a heavy electoral defeat. These factors are, at the same time, sometimes overtaken by the realities of the electoral system in which parties operate. With these insights, this book takes the first step towards building a new model to understand an increasingly important phenomenon in party systems subjected to partisan dealignment and electoral volatility. Show less
This book defends political obligation, stating that people are morally obligated to obey the law of their state, if the law is at least reasonably just. The defense is based on the tradition of... Show moreThis book defends political obligation, stating that people are morally obligated to obey the law of their state, if the law is at least reasonably just. The defense is based on the tradition of the Kantian political philosophy and legal philosophy, and it is a defense mainly against political anarchists. They believe that the only possible justification for political obligation should be voluntarist, proving people’s deliberate undertakings to incur the obligation. Since no attempt in the voluntarist approach is justifiable, political obligation does not exist from the a posterior point of view. As a consequence, political legitimacy, which is claimed to be the other side of the same concept of political obligation, fails to obtain its justification, and no state is legitimate. The exploration in this book contends that a voluntarist basis is neither necessary nor sufficient for people to be obligated to obey the law. And this contention earns the space for justifying political obligation on an involuntarist ground, meaning that people can be imposed on a moral obligation to obey the law without any voluntary actions incurring this obligation. This involuntarist ground is what I name the “moral necessity thesis”. Show less
In 1797 and 1798 the first steps were taken in the Netherlands towards the development of a democratic system. In 1796-1797 a written Constitution was drafted for the Batavian Republic, as the... Show moreIn 1797 and 1798 the first steps were taken in the Netherlands towards the development of a democratic system. In 1796-1797 a written Constitution was drafted for the Batavian Republic, as the Netherlands was called at the time. This Constitution was in 1797 submitted in a national referendum for a vote of the people, but it was rejected. A new draft was written and again submitted the following year. This time the Constitution was adopted. Very little is known about these referenda. Extensive archival research has been necessary in order to understand how these steps in democracy were taken. It has been possible to produce a dataset of results for 948 cities, villages and rural districts. Based on the voting results, the public support for a democratic constitution has been analyzed after a description of the voting system. The voting results are examined along two cleavages structures. First, major distinctions existed between cities and rural districts and secondly between Catholics and Protestants. As a partial explanation the religious preferences are important to understand the turnout by the two referenda. Above all, the results of the two referenda show a deeply divided society of religious minorities. Show less
What influences decision-makers to attack another country when on the brink of war? The main aim of this study is to detect a causal mechanism underlying the decision to attack another country when... Show moreWhat influences decision-makers to attack another country when on the brink of war? The main aim of this study is to detect a causal mechanism underlying the decision to attack another country when on the brink of war, and whether or not this mechanism differs between regime-types. It investigates whether or not regime-type, the nature of the conflict, the power used, and hawkish beliefs of decision-makers matter in this decision. By addressing this question from a political psychological and comparative perspective, this dissertation tests the microfoundations of democratic peace theory simultaneously with alternative theories of decision-making during conflict resolution.The core analytical instrument is a decision-making experiment, executed in the US, Russia, and China. The experimental results are triangulated with a large N-study, and a case study. The overall results show that although the democratic peace as an empirical regularity might still be valid, the theoretical arguments to explain why democracies do not fight with each other turn out to be built on empirically unsupported foundations. This study argues that an actor-based approach towards decision-making processes within international relations offers important insights to the more structured-based theories of international relations. It thereby convincingly shows that the individual matters, also in IR. Show less
Based on philosophical pragmatism, this study builds a model of pragmatist crisis management at the political-strategic level and contrasts it with a principle-guided approach towards political... Show moreBased on philosophical pragmatism, this study builds a model of pragmatist crisis management at the political-strategic level and contrasts it with a principle-guided approach towards political crisis management. It identifies four cornerstons of pragmatist political crisis management and builds a model based on them: anti-dualism, fallibilism, experimentalism and deliberation.This model is applied by analyzing two key political decisions during the U.S. financial crisis: the decision to let the investment bank Bear Stearns fail and the decision to save Lehman Brothers. The empirical analysis reveals how the Bush administration engaged in pragmatist crisis management and overcame its political principles when saving Bear Stearns. The decision to let Lehman Brothers fail, however, is understood as a switch back to principle-guided crisis management. Show less
Party law, or the legal regulation of political parties, has become a prominent feature of party systems. Some party laws are designed to have a much larger political impact than others. It... Show moreParty law, or the legal regulation of political parties, has become a prominent feature of party systems. Some party laws are designed to have a much larger political impact than others. It remains unknown why some countries adopt party laws that have substantial implications for party politics while other countries’ legislative efforts are of a very limited scope. This dissertation explores why different party laws appear as they do. It builds a theoretical framework of party law reform that departs from the Latin American experience with regulating political parties. Latin America is not necessarily known for its strong party systems or party organizations. This raises the important question of why Latin American politicians turn to party law, and to political parties more generally, to structure political life. Using these questions as a heuristic tool, the dissertation advances the argument that party law reforms provide politicians with access to crucial party organizational resources that allow them to win elections and to legislate effectively. It identifies threats to party organizational resources as an important force shaping adopted party law reforms – with potentially damaging consequences for the legitimacy of the political system as a whole. Show less
Research on media and politics often conveys an impression that all politics is mediatized. The concept ‘politics’ however delineates many things and not all types of political processes have... Show moreResearch on media and politics often conveys an impression that all politics is mediatized. The concept ‘politics’ however delineates many things and not all types of political processes have been studied to the same extent. The aim of this study is to explore the media’s role in lawmaking. A preliminary investigation suggests that media attention affects the behavior of political actors during legislative processes. To study how that dynamic works three in-depth case studies are conducted in the Netherlands. The comparative analysis of the cases shows that media coverage played a role in the legislative processes, but that it had limited, if any, influence on the final outcomes. Political actors referred to media coverage or asked questions inspired by media attention during the process, and in very exceptional cases introduced an amendment or motion partly because of media reports. The effect of media attention on support for amendments, motions and bills was however negligible. The media’s influence on lawmaking seems to mainly be an emphasizing effect: as a source of information media coverage puts emphasis on issues, arguments or actors, and as a rhetorical instrument it is used by MPs to emphasize the correctness, topicality, or importance of one’s position. Show less
Beyond the immediately visible plenum, parliaments are highly complex institutions. They work through various venues in which decisions are prepared or even taken. The two main institutions in this... Show moreBeyond the immediately visible plenum, parliaments are highly complex institutions. They work through various venues in which decisions are prepared or even taken. The two main institutions in this regard are parliamentary party groups, which comprise legislators who are elected under the same party label, and parliamentary committees, topic-specific sub-groups of legislators across all parliamentary party groups. Both fulfil important tasks in the internal organisation of legislatures and the processing of legislation.This dissertation analyses how parliamentary party groups organise their work in parliamentary committees. The first part of this book presents an analysis of the structural features of committees. To answer the question ‘why some legislatures with strong parliamentary party groups establish strong committees while others do not?’, the committee systems of 30 legislatures of countries with a parliamentary system of government are analysed.The next two empirical chapters of this book focus on the selection criteria of committee members and the room for manoeuvre of committee members after they have been assigned to a committee. The evidence for these chapters relies on in-depth analyses of the proceedings in a smaller number of legislatures: the Dutch Tweede Kamer, the German Bundestag and the Irish Dáil Éireann. Show less
What do elections mean for a single-party regime? Can party-selected deputies do something meaningful for citizens in non-democracies? The dissertation explores how and under what conditions a... Show moreWhat do elections mean for a single-party regime? Can party-selected deputies do something meaningful for citizens in non-democracies? The dissertation explores how and under what conditions a single-party authoritarian regime instrumentalizes popularly elected congress to strengthen its rule in local society. It takes contemporary China as an empirical focus for this exploration. Instead of perceiving Chinese congress either simply as authoritarian window dressing or as an immediate catalyst for democratization, this research is devoted to examining the motivations, strategies, and behaviors of the party regime in playing the cards of congressional elections and representation to make its rule more robust and resilient. This project mainly adopts comparative case study methods, with some quantitative data serving as supportive statistical evidence. As a whole, my thesis argues that congressional election and post-election representation are two cards of China’s party regime. By strategically downplaying input electoral competition but promoting output congressional representation, the communist regime has been striving to develop a mass-line democracy as an alternative to liberal democracy, which features the “Leninist trinity” of the Party’s leadership, the rule of law, and people’s democracy, as well as a new brand of mobilized representation relying on the accountability from the top down. Show less
