The Netherlands

Author(s):  
Bob Moore

There is a general consensus among historians and political scientists that fascism has never had much popular appeal in the Netherlands. The reasons put forward for this view centre on the stability of a Dutch political system epitomized by relatively unchanging voter allegiances and cabinet formation through coalitions of two or more parties. Traditionally, these allegiances were defined primarily by confessional or established ideological positions: Roman Catholicism, Orthodox Calvinism, liberalism, and Social Democracy. More recently, a fear of immigrants and of an increased presence of Islamic culture has helped spawn movements that, if not openly fascist, certainly contain some of the attributes associated with mainstream fascism. The first forms of fascism emerged in the Netherlands during the 1920s, inspired by a small minority who were motivated by admiration for what Mussolini had achieved in Italy.

Author(s):  
Ronald Kroeze

This chapter concentrates on two large political corruption scandals—Lockheed and Flick—in two countries that are commonly seen as relatively corruption-free: the Netherlands and Germany. It argues that these corruption scandals were taken very seriously in these countries, but were handled in different ways from what current anticorruption policies would suggest. In both instances, the existing law was regarded as inadequate and the political elites tried to keep the scandals subdued by balancing refusal of formal prosecution against intense public debate, with the aim of maintaining the stability of the political system in the longer run. In illuminating the overlapping interests of political and financial elites, this chapter stresses the value of pragmatic as opposed to morally unbendable approaches to anticorruption.


1974 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Pettman

Zambia inherited a system of government and administration in 1964 which was ill-suited to the tasks of political development to which her new leaders were dedicated. What little national unity and mobilisation had been achieved in the independence struggle declined with the removal of the common enemy. The Government rested on a fragile base, without the support of agreed rules and practices to limit and contain conflict, and without adequate instruments available for the implementation of its policies. So the search began for a more suitable political system, which could cope with the new needs of independence, and provide for the stability of the state and the survival of the Government.


1972 ◽  
Vol 1 (13) ◽  
pp. 81 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.H. Van Oarschat ◽  
A. Wevers

Stability tests on the Europoort breakwaters, situated on a shallow foreshore, clearly demonstrated the effect of the foreshore configuration on the overall stability. The present article gives a descriptionof the stability experiments and the interpretation leading to general conclusions regarding foreshore effects in combination with hydraulic conditions such as wave period, water depth and wave height. Both regular and irregular waves have been used. The experiments, carried out in commission of the Netherlands Government Department of Public Works (Rijkswaterstaat) were of an applied nature and were not directed primarily to the systematic study of foreshore effects.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-63
Author(s):  
Wim Klinkert

The Netherlands is positioned amidst three major powers and controls the mouths of three main European rivers. Until the First World War, its choice for armed neutrality (1840-1940) seemed to be the most fitting answer to its security problem. After 1918, the Netherlands had difficulties adjusting to modern war, having decreased its defence budget substantially, and lacked a coherent political-military answer to the interwar strategic and operational challenges. Old notions of the Netherlands as a vital element of regional peace and as a country that could influence the behaviour of its large neighbours no longer fitted reality. Neutrality ceased to provide security to the country, thereby also endangering the stability in Western Europe to which the Dutch so wholeheartedly aspired.


2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 475-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
BERNARD RULOF

AbstractDuring the 1930s the Dutch social democratic party changed into a party which sought to reform rather than to abolish capitalism. This transformation was accompanied by a change in tactics and strategy intended to meet the challenges of economic and political crises. Henceforth, the Sociaal-Democratische Arbeiderspartij tried to establish co-operation with social groupings well beyond its traditional rank and file of industrial labourers. A new generation of voluntarist politicians proposed to adopt the methods of propaganda, and turned for inspiration to activities undertaken by Belgian and German socialists, as well as the world of commercial advertising.


1965 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 656-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth F. Johnson

Evaluations of single-party democracy in Mexico have yielded a substantial literature from the researches of contemporary scholars. Their primary subjects of treatment have been the institutionalized agents of moderation and compromise that have made Mexico one of Latin America's more stable political systems. In prosecuting these studies, however, only scant attention has been given to political groups outside the officially sanctioned “revolutionary famity” of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional. The PRI has maintained a virtual monopoly of elective and appointive offices since 1929 and traditionally has been thought of as affiliating to itself the only politically relevant groups in Mexico.Modern Mexican political life has always had its “out groups” and splinter parties. Mostly, they have come and gone, leaving little or no impact upon the political system which they have attempted to influence. Howard Cline has contended that opposition groups in Mexico find it impossible to woo the electorate away from the PRI and thus feel forced to adopt demagoguery and other extreme postures which serve only to reduce their popular appeal.


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