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This article discusses the Strategic Governance and Corruption Analysis (SGACA) introduced in 2007 by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a tool for political-economy analysis of governance structures in aid-receiving countries. It suggests an explanation of the paradox that SGACA was generally seen as a strong analytical instrument, yet was discarded within one 4-year policy cycle. Drawing on the literature on policy innovations, it argues that there are three main causes of this demise: first, the collective-action problems involved in getting innovations implemented in the apparatus of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; second, the fact that the policy window opened for SGACA by the mid-2000s did not stay open throughout the implementation process; and third, the bureaucratic politics played out in the environment in which SGACA had been developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's insights on the colonial refractions in the Netherlands. Topics discussed include former Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende's enunciation of the nation, the colonial logics of Dutch nationalist discourse, and the colonialism's role in the Dutch Golden Age. Also mentioned are the violent force of colonialism, inequality, and liberal values in the country.

The relationship between politicians and journalists is often portrayed as an intimate dance, characterized by intFerdependence. The political agenda-setting approach has been used successfully to improve our knowledge of certain aspects of this power relationship. This study builds on this line of research, but in more depth by conducting a detailed and reciprocal analysis of the relationship between press coverage and parliamentary questions in the Netherlands (1995–2010). Our macro-level approach shows that the effect of media on written questions is stronger than the reverse. A more detailed micro-analysis of media coverage preceding and following oral questions does indicate that most of the questions can be traced back to coverage in the days before, but that they receive less media attention afterwards. This might initially indicate that the media are leading the dance with parliamentarians, at least when it comes to questioning behaviour. In many instances, however, media are not creating the news that MPs rely on, but rather are transmitters of information that originates from other political and non-political sources. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article looks at the administrative elite of the Dutch central government from 1980 to 2012. Particular focus is given to relations between the administrative elite and political officeholders. According to the author, the creation of the Senior Executive Service (SES) has reinforced the elite status of these administrators. Occupational mobility, education, professional cohesion, and the set of policy changes known as New Public Management (NPM) are also discussed.

Having a specific ministry for overseas territories is the outcome of Dutch and Caribbean (post) colonial history. The Kingdom of The Netherlands as of 2010 consists of four autonomous countries. The Netherlands in Europe, and Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten in the Caribbean. The government of The Netherlands in Europe also governs three special public entities resembling municipalities in the Caribbean: Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba (BES-islands). The recent changes in the constitutional relations between The Netherlands in Europe and its Caribbean counterparts can be explained by two factors. On the one hand the resourceful and successful resistance of both the local political elites as well as the local populations against Dutch decolonisation efforts in the 1970s and 1980s. On the other hand the responsibility felt by the former colonial power for the detrimental effects of the lack of good governance in the overseas territories under the previous constitutional arrangements, caused by clientelism, corruption and the encroachment of international organized crime on the local administrations. Consequently, direct Dutch involvement in local Caribbean politics and administrations with good governance programs has significantly increased since the 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a case study of political debates aired on television in the Netherlands during political campaigns since 1960. In particular, it describes the perception of such debates by political parties in the Netherlands and how these perceptions have changed over time. The election of 1986 is highlighted.

This article deals with the role of ‘Islam’ in contemporary Dutch political discourses on tolerance. I will show how Islam is described as an ideology (and not as a religion) competing with liberal values. I argue that political disputes are not at all about Islam as a living religion, but about ‘Islam’ as a culturally presumed menace to, or negative projection of, dominant Dutch imaginaries, such as tolerance and free speech, that are taken as elementary conditions for a liberal democratic state. The first part of this article deals with the staging and development of ‘Islam’ in Dutch politics since the 1970s. Part two develops a theoretical understanding of the framing of ‘Islam’ as the opponent of ‘tolerance’ and argues that this position shows a typical modern stance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper applies a political process approach to analyze existing evaluations of gender mainstreaming (GM) efforts by (non) governmental agencies in Dutch development cooperation. This analytical framework looks both into structural elements (in terms of political/organization opportunities) and agency (in terms of mobilizing actor constellations and strategic framing) to explain how and why, despite the wide and rapid adoption of GM policies and practices, it has been a trajectory of progress and setbacks. Looking at mainstreaming as a political process reveals how politics affects every level, phase and space involved in the mainstreaming process and as such, makes GM an ongoing struggle. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his Widening Circles of Disidentification the Dutch sociologist Abram de Swaan argues that enmity and violent conflicts occur most frequently among groups that resemble one another, in transitional phases in which the social differences between these groups are growing smaller. This paper sets out to explore this thesis, in relation to the recent tensions in the Netherlands generated by a trend towards radicalization among second-generation Moroccan youth. Another relevant point that is discussed is the way some ethnic minority juveniles are socialised and integrated in Dutch society. Political radicalism among young Moroccans in the Netherlands seems to be promoted by emancipation and coercive family processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the emergence, in the field of crime and safety, of a formula of government that can be called neoliberal communitarianism. This is a paradoxical governmental strategy that combines a focus on 'individual responsibility', 'community' and a 'selectively tough state'. The discussion is based on the Foucaultian triangle of strategy, political programmes and techniques. The substance of this application consists of a discussion of recent Dutch political programmes and techniques in crime and safety policies. The discussion includes the local case of Rotterdam, a city at times regarded as a 'policy laboratory'. Specifically, the role that notions of citizenship and community play in crime and safety policies is analysed. We hereby point at two different manifestations of responsibilization - repressive responsibilization and facilitative responsibilization - aimed at two governmentally differentiated populations. In addition, we describe how neoliberal communitarianism entails the selective exclusion of subjects imagined as 'high risk'. Because the government of crime tells us much about the government of 'society', neoliberal communitarianism is a useful concept to grasp contemporary changes in government in the Netherlands and in other European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research suggests that the Big Five personality traits are important determinants of a wide range of political and social attitudes. In spite of this, the impact of personality traits on attitudes towards immigrants has been unattended in sociological research. On the basis of insights from personality psychology, we extend the sociological approach to immigrant-specific prejudice by analysing the effects of personality using a large and nationally representative sample of the Dutch population. Moreover, we consider personality jointly with situational predictors of attitudes towards immigrants. The results confirm that some personality traits are associated with attitudes towards immigrants, beyond the effect of socio-economic, attitudinal and contact predictors. We conclude that combining insights from sociology and personality psychology in the study of dispositional and situational determinants of attitudes towards immigration is a fruitful avenue for research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Immigration and integration issues have become increasingly important in West European politics, partly as a consequence of the rise of anti-immigration parties. This article investigates how immigration and integration issues have become politicised in the Netherlands since the beginning of the 1990s, what role anti-immigration parties have played in this process and the extent to which party positions on these issues are structured by a left-right dimension. It examines changes in debates about immigration and integration issues by means of a content analysis of party programmes, measuring changes in frames, positions and salience. It concludes that (1) immigration and integration issues have been given more attention by parties since the early 1990s, (2) parties have replaced their discourse of socio-economic integration by a discourse of cultural integration and (3) parties have adopted a monoculturalist instead of a multiculturalist position in the immigration and integration debate. However, despite these changes to the immigration and integration debate, it remains structured by a left–right divide, with left-wing parties being in favour of more lenient, multiculturalist policies and right-wing parties being in favour of more restrictive, monoculturalist policies. Furthermore, the article demonstrates that many of the changes were already set in motion by mainstream parties prior to the successful electoral breakthrough of anti-immigration parties. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study aims to bring together insights from scholars working on the ordinary legislative procedure with research on national parliaments and European Union (EU) affairs. It is assumed that members of national parliaments – when choosing directives in negotiation at the EU level in need of scrutiny – are confronted with variation in information processing costs, as well as in benefits in terms of policy influence and votes. Hypotheses are formulated on how the cost–benefit calculus can influence the scrutiny of directives agreed upon through the ordinary legislative procedure. An analysis of parliamentary activity in the Dutch and British lower houses on 293 directives indicates that directives which are longer in negotiation at the EU level, on which explanatory memoranda are published, receive media attention and are concluded without informal trilogues in second/third reading, are more scrutinized. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sporting icons perform a key role in the production and reproduction of national identities. In the Netherlands, no one embodies this sentiment more appropriately than Johan Cruijff, regarded by many as one of the finest professional footballers ever to have played the game. Much of the early part of Cruijff's career (during the 1960s and 1970s) mirrored an era of optimism, (liberal) ideology, freedom, hope and, for the Netherlands competing in international sport, unprecedented success across a range of sports including football, ice skating and cycling. Only a very limited number of players (such as Pele, Platini or Beckenbauer) manage to translate their status as sporting icons onto their subsequent activities beyond the playing field. This article focuses on this phenomenon by examining the case of Cruijff, from an icon on the field of play to his status as a national leader capable of commentating on a range of domestic issues. This analysis also considers the manner in which Cruijff deployed his elevated status in the specific confines of a recent power struggle within his former club Ajax of Amsterdam, the most well-known football club in the Netherlands. The article argues that even in the event of perceived failure and, with this, a possible loss of credibility, the icon retains his prestige and notoriety. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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This article explores whether recent social and political developments have transformed religious organisations' involvement in welfare activities. Most developed countries have undergone a process of secularisation in which the religious attachments of major segments of society, and also certain state institutions, have weakened. In recent years, welfare state expansion has stalled and most welfare states have entered an 'age of austerity'. Changes in the welfare state terrain - primarily restructuring - have transformed the opportunity structure faced by faith-based organisations. A survey of faith-based organisation involvement in welfare across four countries - England, Israel, Germany and the Netherlands - reveals a complex picture. While in some countries welfare state restructuring creates opportunities for faith-based organisations to expand their role, in others the combination of secularisation and restructuring create unfavourable conditions for these organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses political debates about civic integration policies in the Netherlands, so as to identify different conceptions of the role of the state in ensuring social cohesion by governing diversity. Drawing on the literature on party systems, it presents an analysis of political party positions on the role of the state in civic integration along two dimensions: economic distribution on the one hand, and sociocultural governance on the other hand. I find that while the large majority of Dutch political parties adopt authoritarian positions on the sociocultural axis in favour of state intervention to protect Dutch culture and identity, their positions diverge significantly on the classic economic Left–Right dimension. The most contentious issue in Dutch civic integration politics is whether the state, the market or individual migrants should be responsible for financing and organising courses. Thus, this article proposes an innovative model for analysing the politics of citizenship, which enables us to comprehend how citizenship policies are shaped not only by views on how identity and culture relate to social cohesion, but also by diverging perspectives on socio-economic justice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article investigates the attitudinal drivers of partisanship in Western Europe, focusing in particular on the role exerted by voters’ evaluation of party leaders. The cross-sectional analysis is performed on pooled national election study data from three established parliamentary democracies (Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands). Results highlight the growing statistical association between leader evaluations and voters’ feelings of partisan attachment throughout the last three decades. Further analyses of selected panel data provide evidence for a causal interpretation in which voters’ evaluation of party leaders plays a crucial role in shaping their feelings of attachment to parties. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

New social movement organisations in the Netherlands, which aim at accelerating the Dutch energy transition through assisting (local) citizens’ initiatives, claim to be part of a new type of environmental movement. Using a conceptual framework that combines resource mobilisation theory with insights from other political and social theories, the characteristics and discourse of six of these organisations are investigated, especially as regards the role of government. As they consider knowledge a critical resource and link (new) knowledge to local action, these are considered to be ‘bottom up’ social movement boundary organisations (SMBOs). How they conceive of their boundary role and to what extent they are prepared to challenge the dominant knowledge framework of the Dutch energy-related institutions are considered. The institutional barriers and collective action dilemmas they face, and how these might be overcome, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Soon after the end of World War II, Dutch science was reconstituted by novel funding agencies with well-filled coffers. The currently received view is that in a vulnerable and war-torn society the new institutions were created on the basis of technocratic ideals that date back to pre-war years. One of these agencies, the Foundation for Fundamental Research of Matter (or ' FOM'), was founded by the Schermerhorn administration to coordinate nuclear research and it attracted by far the most funds. This imbalance in funding, however, is hard to understand from the perspective of the received view alone. We wish to emphasize instead that particularly relevant for understanding FOM's early history, and, by implication, the early history of Dutch post-war science, is a change in attitudes regarding 'fundamental' physics that followed closely on the heels of the dropping of the atomic bombs in August of 1945. A new and substantial effort in basic physics was suddenly deemed necessary as a precondition for technological development, to keep pace with developments in and discussions about nuclear science abroad, and to remain within the purview of the new hegemon in the sciences, the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 9/11 attacks and the subsequent increase of counterterrorism laws and regulations in Western democracies have also spurned heavy debates on torture and ill-treatment of captured terrorist suspects. However, while the Netherlands did deploy troops to Afghanistan and adopted new laws and policies regarding counterterrorism, debates on torture remained marginal. Indeed, the Netherlands has not suffered the pressure of a constant high terrorist threat, or endured a catastrophic terrorist attack. However, the author argues that there are more reasons for the lack of heated discussions. While this article does not intend to lift the Dutch case to an exemplary one, it illustrates how Dutch government authorities made good use of the benefits of hindsight regarding torture debates and incidents elsewhere and were able to apply lessons regarding accountability and oversight concerning interrogation issues at home successfully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the Dutch state's shifting perspectives on migrants' ties with their country of origin. In the academic literature transnationalism was introduced as a neutral term. In political debates the term transnationalism is hardly used, but the ties of migrants with their country of origin (to which the term transnationalism relates) are given a strong negative connotation. They are seen as the main course of failed integration policy. In the past fifty years a dramatic shift has occurred in how these ties are perceived. First, they were regarded positively and were believed to facilitate an easy return of the guest workers. Later they continued to be portrayed positively, but were also considered to be a springboard for integration into Dutch society. Recently they have been portrayed negatively and as the main obstacle to integration. This article explores why this dramatic shift in connotation has occurred. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Transparency is considered a key value for trustworthy governments. However, the effect of transparency on citizens' trust across national cultures is overlooked in current research. This article compares the effect of transparency on trust in government in the Netherlands and South Korea. The effect is investigated in two similar series of three experiments. The authors hypothesize that the effect of transparency differs because the countries have different cultural values regarding power distance and short- and long-term orientation. Results reveal similar patterns in both countries: transparency has a subdued and sometimes negative effect on trust in government. However, the negative effect in South Korea is much stronger. The difference in the magnitude of transparency's effect suggests that national cultural values play a significant role in how people perceive and appreciate government transparency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing body of literature on hierarchy in international relations has overlooked instances of contemporary imperial governance. These imperial arrangements constitute a strong test of rationalist contractual theories of hierarchy. They support the contention that some polities will eschew sovereign prerogatives, or even renounce sovereignty altogether. Contrary to historical instances of empire, current dependencies receive prominent material benefits from the continuation of their relationship with the metropole. But the failure of the metropoles to obtain equivalent benefits shows why contractual scholarship on hierarchy is incomplete in failing to incorporate logics of appropriateness. Thus the primary theoretical goal of the article is to show that such scholarship is right in claiming that there is more to the international system than just sovereign-like units under anarchy, but also that it is too narrow in seeking to explain all instances of hierarchy as mutually beneficial bargains. Evidence is taken from fieldwork and interviews in dependencies of the Netherlands, Denmark and New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]