Localism and radical right-wing populism

Institutions, Decisions and Collective Behaviou

'No politics in the agenda-setting meeting':plenary agenda-setting in the Netherlands

The process of agenda setting is fundamental to politics, yet there is surprisingly little research about this process in parliamentary systems. The reason for this lacuna is that agenda setting tends to occur behind closed doors. The Dutch Tweede Kamer is an exception to this rule: decisions about the parliamentary agenda are made in public. This study examines agenda setting in the Dutch parliament from an issue-competition perspective. It looks at a sample of more than 400 agenda-setting meetings of the Dutch parliament between 1998 and 2017. It finds that opposition parties which stand far from the government make proposals on issues that they ‘own’; these proposals are supported by other opposition parties, parties that stand close to them and focus on the same issue. Coalition parties and parties that stand far away sabotage these proposals.The politics and administration of institutional chang

Is a Nexit now on the cards? What the UK’s referendum means for the Netherlands

One of the issues raised by the UK’s decision to leave the European Union is the effect it could have on Eurosceptic movements in other countries, with other referendums on EU membership a possibility. Simon Otjes considers the impact Brexit is having in the Netherlands. He suggests that while there will now be far greater scrutiny over European integration, it is highly unlikely that the country will hold a referendum on EU membership

Going Local. Voting for independent local Parties in the Netherlands 1986-2010.

This paper examines why the support of independent local parties has grown substantially in the Netherlands. These are parties that run in municipal council elections, but do not run in elections at higher levels, specifically the national level. Such parties saw their support double in the Netherlands between 1986 and 2010. Parties of this type have also grown in other Western European states. This paper examines two possible explanations: declining political trust on the level of voters and, on the supply side, the rise of parties that are not rooted at the local level. The evidence shows that the rise of independent local parties reflects the rise of national political parties that do not run in many municipal elections. This article examines the case of the Netherlands, pooling five surveys from the 1986–2010 period.Institutions, Decisions and Collective Behaviou

Could the Netherlands’ referendum on Ukraine really create a ‘continental crisis’?

A referendum is scheduled in the Netherlands on the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement signed in 2014. Simon Otjes writes on the domestic political developments that led to the referendum being called and what the implications of a ‘no’ vote could be. He notes that while it is likely the agreement would simply be modified if Dutch voters reject it, the referendum will lay the foundations for the next parliamentary elections in 2017

Between "Eradicate All False Religion" and "Love the Stranger as Yourself":How Immigration Attitudes Divide Voters of Religious Parties

The literature on voting for Christian-democratic parties has emphasized that voters of these parties are still motivated by the old religious cleavages that led to the formation of these parties and that structured the vote for these parties for years. Their strong attachment to religious parties even immunized Christian voters from the temptation of the radical right. Yet what the role the new cultural dimension about immigration, civic integration, and identity plays in structuring the vote for religious parties is unclear. Are voters of religious parties immune to the effect of the party polarization of immigration? This paper shows that the policy positions of religious parties matter for what kind of voter votes for them. This paper shows the importance of immigration attitudes in voting for three different religious parties in the Netherlands by combining eight national election surveys between 1994 and 2017