Understanding Party System Change in Western Europe by Peter Mair & Gordon Smith

Author:Peter Mair & Gordon Smith [Mair, Peter & Smith, Gordon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781136289972
Google: ZduGXEcsF-MC
Goodreads: 17537402
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1990-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CONCLUSION

The changes in the Dutch party system after twenty years have been unmistakable, if also perhaps unimpressive. The number of parties has not changed considerably. Small parties survive to the left and to the right, but their relevance has declined since 1966. The decline of the religious vote has resulted in stronger progressive parties (the PvdA and D'66) and a stronger conservative-liberal party (the VVD), and, most importantly, has led to the emergence of the CDA as the dominant centre of Dutch politics. This dominance now rests on some one-third of the vote, however, rather than on a majority, as was the case from 1918 to 1963.

While the PvdA has moved more to the left, the CDA has turned to the right. But it is doubtful if these rather sharply accentuated differences will survive the ‘time of troubles’. The CDA, the VVD, the PvdA and D'66 have now all initiated internal debates on their ideological identity, the purpose being not to confront one another so much as to retain a distinct identity, this being one of the pre-conditions of a return to a more consociational style of politics.

A distinctive (and attractive) ideological identity is also increasingly necessary given that stable electoral attachments have given way to increased volatility, and given that the issues on which the original partisan identities have been built have faded away and/or are being replaced by new concerns.

Changed as it certainly is, the most striking thing about the Dutch party system after twenty years is its remarkable resilience in the face of determined attempts to transform it, and in a context of rapid structural societal change. As already suggested, however, this resilience can best be understood as the unintended and unforeseen consequence of parties following particular strategies and thereby more or less successfully exploiting societal resources. In contrast with the view that parties and their organisations and strategies are the dependent variables in ongoing processess of re- and dealignment, it is apparent from the Dutch case that political parties are not only and not always the objects of societal forces, but that they can shape and exploit these forces with more, or less, success.

Postscript: This essay was written before the fall of the Lubbers II cabinet in May 1989, when the parliamentary caucus of the VVD withdrew its support for the cabinet.

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