COVID-19 in parliamentary debates: opposition sentiment started out relatively positive towards the government but increasingly became more negative

Or Tuttnauer, Tom Louwerse, Rudy Andeweg, and Ulrich Sieberer analyse opposition party sentiment in relation to government actions and policies during the first six months of 2020. Drawing on parliamentary debates in four countries, including the UK, they observe an initial positive opposition sentiment which turned more negative as the first wave abated

Een democratic audit in Nederland

Het (dis)functioneren van de democratie blijft de gemoederen in Nederland bezighouden. In het verleden leverden ambtenaren en (ex-)politici al kritische bijdragen over dit onderwerp. Zo voerde het ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties in 2006 een democratic audit uit, die resulteerde in het rapport De Staat van onze democratie, en publiceerde de Raad voor het openbaar bestuur onlangs de beschouwing Vertrouwen op democratie. Met de presentatie van het tweeluik Democratie doorgelicht en Van afspiegelen naar afrekenen? is het nu de beurt aan de academische gemeenschap. Een vijftigtal bestuurskundigen en politicologen heeft, op basis van een inventarisatie van bestaand empirisch onderzoek, de Nederlandse democratie de maat genomen

Beyond Collective Representation: Individual Members of Parliament and Interest Representation in the Netherlands

In political representation research it is now generally recognised that in parliamentary systems political parties rather than individual members of parliament are the key actors in the process of political representation. However, this focus on political parties might have led to an underestimation of the role of individual members of parliament in this process, even in purely parliamentary systems. It tends to neglect the efforts of representatives to secure particular benefits for individuals or groups in their constituencies. In this paper we will address the question to what extent these forms of representation are part of the repertoire of activities of members of the Dutch parliament as compared to other European parliaments