Articles

Democratische politiek : 'minder, minder, minder' of anders ?

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Abstract

his article looks at indications and counterindications in Dutch democracy for the popular claim that citizens, while still valuing representative democracy, are fed up with representative polities. Using available large-scale surveys, citizen attitudes are analysed at the levels of specific politica! actors (politicians, officials), central political institutions (political parties, parliament, government) and the general system of representative democratic polities (the way it works in the Netherlands, with multi party coalitions, etc). While specific legitimacy problems exist, the evidence tor a general legitimacy crisis in Dutch democracy is comparatively weak and highly mixed. More specifically, the evidence suggests that Dutch citizens do not so much want less representative polities, but rather representative polities of a somewhat different kind: less exclusively organized via party-politica! channels; more geared at recognizable and accountable political authority. Dutch citizens want to seriously influence but not supplant selectionistic representative polities, the evidence suggests.

How to Cite:

Hendriks, F. & van der Krieken, K. & van Zuydam, S., (2017) “Democratische politiek : 'minder, minder, minder' of anders ?”, Res Publica 59(1), 7-34.