De organisatorische structuur der Nederlandse politieke partijen

After having stressed the importance of the organizational structure of the political parties in a democracy, the author examines the structure of the ten political parties which had, in the period 1963—1967, representatives in the Second Chamber of Parliament, paying particular attention to the extent to which the members have a say in the party. On the basis of the different kinds of elections (local, provincial. First Chamber, Second Chamber) the organs of the party are divided into six levels (table 1). For each level the powers of the organs in question are discussed, in particular the power to elect, to nominate or to delegate individuals in the organs placed higher in table 1. The party-members, the lowest level in table 1, have only the power to elect, to nominate or to delegate for the next level. For all the other levels their power in this respect is indirect. In general it can be said that thè higher the level of the organ, the more indirect the power of the party-member is concerning the composition of that organ. In the composition of these higher placed organs, other organs — on the the composition of which the party members have no or little influence — have an important say. This kind of organizational structure may easiliy give rise to feelings of frustration on the part of the party-members and hampers their activation and participation

Coalition theories: empirical evidence for dutch municipalities

The paper analyzes coalition formation in Dutch municipalities. After discussing the main features of the institutional setting, several theories are discussed, which are classified as size oriented, policy oriented and actor oriented models. A test statistic is proposed to determine the predictive power of these models. The empirical analysis shows that strategic positions as well as some of the distinguished preferences are important in the setting of Dutch municipalities. Especially, the dominant minimum number principle yields highly significant results for coalition formations in the period 1978–1986

De organisatorische structuur der Nederlandse politieke partijen

After having stressed the importance of the organizational structure of the political parties in a democracy, the author examines the structure of the ten political parties which had, in the period 1963—1967, representatives in the Second Chamber of Parliament, paying particular attention to the extent to which the members have a say in the party. On the basis of the different kinds of elections (local, provincial. First Chamber, Second Chamber) the organs of the party are divided into six levels (table 1). For each level the powers of the organs in question are discussed, in particular the power to elect, to nominate or to delegate individuals in the organs placed higher in table 1. The party-members, the lowest level in table 1, have only the power to elect, to nominate or to delegate for the next level. For all the other levels their power in this respect is indirect. In general it can be said that thè higher the level of the organ, the more indirect the power of the party-member is concerning the composition of that organ. In the composition of these higher placed organs, other organs — on the the composition of which the party members have no or little influence — have an important say. This kind of organizational structure may easiliy give rise to feelings of frustration on the part of the party-members and hampers their activation and participation