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Democracy is one of the most used and misinterpreted terms of our time. In public discussions concerning the subject it is tacitly assumed that everyone is aware of the meaning of democracy and the implications it carries. In reality democratic ideals and practices take on various forms in various countries. Frank Hendriks sheds light on this subject matter in a comprehensible manner. He distinguishes four ground forms of democracy, which are inherent to democratic forms everywhere. Along with "consensus democracy", Hendriks compares "pendulum democracy", "voter democracy" and "participatory democracy", at national as well as subnational levels of governance. Hendriks concludes in his studies that contrary to popular belief, not one model is superior to the others and calls for a realistic approach to a democracy that is sensitive to the context in which democracy must prove and sustain itself

Little is known about views on democracy of adolescents. In this article we describe results of our interview study with forty adolescents of fourteen years old on their views of democracy and decision making. The study focuses on the daily lives of adolescents and decision making within local contexts, such as the classroom. The adolescents' views on decision making appear to correspond to the models of democracy as we know them, that is majoritarian democracy (the largest group), consensual democracy or deliberative democracy. However, only some of the adolescents have an explicit understanding of the concept of democracy and most have limited political knowledge. For these students, the experience or feeling of being part of a political democracy is still something 'far away' and not something of any relevance in their daily lives. Adapted from the source document.

In the 1970s and '80s residents and architects in Amsterdam worked together to shape the renewal of their neighbourhood. Working outside traditional planning constraints they initiated a process for designing 'neighbourhood plans' that gave priority to affordable housing and minimized disruption to the existing social and urban design structure. Although these neighbourhood plans stood in stark contrast to prevailing political and urban planning ideas, they formed the basis on which urban renewal was realized from the middle of the 1970s. While the focus in the historiography of urban renewal is usually on politics and policy, this article provides insight into the design process itself and the ideas behind urban renewal architecture based on numerous consultation documents generated by the collaboration between local residents and architects. The Dapperbuurt area serves as an exemplary case study. The example of the Dapperbuurt shows that locals and architects formed energetic and effective coalitions. After the residents of the Dapperbuurt had won far-reaching control over the design process, including a say in the choice of architect, they entered into a collaboration with the architects Hans Borkent, Rob Blom van Assendelft and Hein de Haan. During the extensive consultation process the architects acted as equal discussion partners rather than all-knowing experts, while local residents provided creativity and spontaneous initiatives and had the final say. Together they designed with 'direct democracy'. In this article those collaborative arrangements are referred to as 'creative housing coalitions'. This term expresses both their main aim and their greatest strength. It also shows who initiated the urban renewal housing projects and how grass-roots initiatives were ultimately translated into policy. In the course of the design process, local residents and their architects sought creative ways of reconciling the apparent antithesis between the historically evolved city and modern architecture and urban design. Instead of taking a blank slate as their starting point, they proceeded on the basis of the qualities of the existing environment and the interests and wishes of the residents. This resulted in the retention of the existing morphology and functional diversity. However, the housing projects were on a much larger scale than the individual buildings that had previously made up the neighbourhood, because while the local residents were unwilling to give up their familiar living environment, they did want modern home comforts. This study has revealed that the replacement construction was required to combine the best of both worlds. In order to suggest a smaller scale, the external walls were vertically articulated, and their height demarcated by means of balconies, bay windows, hoisting beams, eaves and staggered building lines. So both contrast to and compatibility with the context are relevant criteria for evaluating urban renewal architecture. In addition, it turns out that a key merit of this urban renewal was its function, namely to deliver affordable and comfortable housing on centrally located sites with high land values. The architecture gives expression to that function. ; In de jaren zeventig en tachtig gaven in Amsterdam bewoners en architecten samen vorm aan de vernieuwing van hun buurt. Buiten de reguliere kaders om initieerden zij een proces voor het ontwerpen van zogenaamde 'buurtplannen', waarin prioriteit werd gegeven aan betaalbaar wonen en zo min mogelijk verstoring van de bestaande sociale en stedenbouwkundige structuur. Hoewel deze buurtplannen in schril contrast stonden met de heersende politieke en stedenbouwkundige opvattingen, vormden ze de basis waarop de stadsvernieuwing vanaf midden jaren zeventig werd gerealiseerd. In de historiografie van de stadsvernieuwing ligt de focus op politiek en beleid. Dit artikel geeft daarentegen inzicht in het ontwerpproces en de ideeën achter de stadsvernieuwingsarchitectuur aan de hand van velerlei overlegdocumenten die voortkwamen uit de samenwerking tussen buurtbewoners en architecten. Hierbij dient de Dapperbuurt als exemplarische casestudy.Het voorbeeld van de Dapperbuurt laat zien dat buurtbewoners en architecten daadkrachtige coalities vormden. Nadat bewoners van de Dapperbuurt verregaande controle op het ontwerpproces hadden bevochten, inclusief zeggenschap over de architectenkeuze, gingen zij een samenwerking aan met de architecten Hans Borkent, Rob Blom van Assendelft en Hein de Haan. Deze stelden zich in uitgebreide inspraakprocedures op als gelijkwaardige gesprekspartners in plaats van alwetende experts, terwijl buurtbewoners zorgden voor creativiteit en spontane initiatieven en een doorslaggevende stem hadden. Gezamenlijk ontwierpen zij met 'direkte demokratie'. Deze samenwerkingsverbanden worden in dit artikel geduid als creatieve wooncoalities. Dit idee geeft zowel uitdrukking aan hun belangrijkste doelstelling als aan hun grootste kracht. Daarnaast laat het zien wie de woningbouwprojecten van de stadsvernieuwing initieerden en hoe burgerinitiatieven uiteindelijk werden omgezet in beleid. In het ontwerpproces zochten de Dapperbuurters en hun architecten naar creatieve oplossingen om de schijnbare tegenstelling tussen de historisch gegroeide stad en moderne architectuur en stedenbouw te overbruggen. In plaats van een blanco blad als uitgangspunt te nemen, gingen ze uit van de kwaliteiten van de bestaande omgeving en de belangen en wensen van de bewoners. Dit resulteerde in behoud van de bestaande morfologie en functiemenging. De woningbouwprojecten kregen echter een beduidend grotere schaal dan de individuele panden waaruit de buurt tot dan toe bestond, omdat de buurtbewoners hun vertrouwde leefomgeving niet wilden opgeven maar wel behoefte hadden aan modern wooncomfort. Uit dit onderzoek blijkt dat de nieuwbouw het beste van beide moest combineren. Om toch de suggestie van kleinschaligheid te wekken, werden de gevelwanden verticaal geleed en in hoogte afgebakend door middel van balkons, erkers, hijsbalken, dakoverstekken en verspringende rooilijnen. Zowel contrast met als aansluiting op de context zijn aldus relevante criteria voor de waardering van de stadsvernieuwingsarchitectuur. Bovendien blijkt dat een wezenlijke waarde van de stadsvernieuwing haar functie is, namelijk betaalbaar en comfortabel wonen op centrale locaties met hoge grondwaarden. De architectuur geeft uitdrukking aan die functie.

The record-breaking, bestselling Spud arrives in paperback JOHN ASPUDA MILTON takes his first hilarious steps toward manhood in this delicious, laugh-out-loud boarding school romp, full of midnight swims, raging hormones, and catastrophic holidays that will leave the entire family in hysterics and thirsty for more!

Political parties are the building blocks of representative democracy since they traditionally perform roles that are considered essential for the functioning & well-being of democracy. In the study & evaluation of the democratic system as a whole, as a general rule, parties are treated as unitary actors. Most political parties, however, are membership organizations & their external functioning is partly dependent on internal affairs, including the behavior & opinions of their members. In this paper we open the black box of parties & show on the basis of a 2008 survey among seven political parties how united or divided ordinary Dutch party members are with respect to various political issues & orientations. It is shown that most parties are rather united on most issues. They are least united on two of the most pertinent issues of today's politics, ie., the integration of ethnic minorities & European integration. Adapted from the source document.

Van Oenen stuit op een opvallende paradox: democratie wordt niet bedreigd door mensen die tegen democratie zijn, maar juist door degenen die zeer enthousiast zijn over de democratie. Wij lijken nooit genoeg democratie te hebben. Dit is een motor voor veel van de democratische onvrede die vandaag de dag door velen ervaren wordt. Maar de democratie is eigenlijk volledig gerealiseerd, zo stelt Van Oenen, en begint inmiddels vormen van slijtage te vertonen. Het lastige aan een volledig gerealiseerde democratie is dat het steeds moeilijker wordt de bestuurders verwijten te maken over zaken die niet goed lopen. Wij zijn in dat geval immers zelf medeschuldig, want wij hebben deze mensen verkozen. Volgens Van Oenen is ook dit een belangrijke motor van ontevredenheid

Hans Daudt proposed a decade ago no uncertain terms that the Netherlands cannot be considered a representative democracy. The system does not fails to adequately account for the needs of the citizens and hopes to turn it into policy. In the Netherlands immediately falls in such consideration also the word 'regents' to denote an elite alienated from the society it is supposed to represent and serve. The Dutch debate about whether democracy and its institutions are not ready for a makeover, is only an example of a widespread debate among politicians, political commentators and political scientists which searches for the causes of the imperfect functioning of democracy and to remedies before. Very often stands the question whether the representative institutions do belong to accomplish their task. Repeatedly show that the fact that survey research institutions - parties, parliament, government - those least trusted by the citizens. Adapted from the source document.

A review essay on books by (1) Jacques A. A. van Doorn, Duits socialisme. Het falen van de sociaal-democratie en de triomf van het nationaal-socialisme [German Socialism. The Failure of Social Democracy and the Triumph of National Socialism] Amsterdam: Mets & Schilt, 2007); (2) Cas Mudde, Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge U Press, 2007); & (3) Jan Blommaert, De Crisis van de Democratie. Commentaren op Actuele Politiek ([The Crisis of Democracy Comments on Contemporary Politics] Berchem: EPO, 2007).

This special issue about the practice of local referendums in the Netherlands and Flanders, Belgium, focuses in particular on the relationship between referendums and the consensus model of democracy. On the one hand, referendums are widely conceived of as a typical majoritarian device. On the other hand, the legal possibility of referendums forces political elites to reach broad agreement, in order to prevent a popular vote in which decisions would be recalled. The three contributions to this issue demonstrate that consensus democracy influences the debate about referendums in the legislative, as well as how the practicalities are organised, in more varied ways. Studies of independent referendum bodies in the Netherlands and question wording in referendums in Flanders show that the nature of consensus democracy enables both countries to find solutions to potential problems, but also brings new problems. Guidelines for how these may be prevented in future referendums are provided. Adapted from the source document.