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The central aim in our NWO 'Comprehensible Language' project (2012-2016) was to investigate to what extent Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) intentionally and unintentionally affect political knowledge and political attitudes. In this article, we present an overview of four years of research. First, we investigated reasons for use of VAAs, distinguishing three types of users: checkers (well-informed, enjoying to check the VAA), seekers (looking for political information to base their vote on) and doubters (looking for information but cynical about politics). The proportions of these groups differ for first vs. second order elections. Second, we investigated whether VAAs increase users' political knowledge. We found that users report an increase of internal efficacy due to their VAA use, but we did not find an increase in actual political knowledge. Third, a field experiment showed systematic effects of framing variation on the answers to VAA assertions, which might suggest different underlying knowledge representations. Finally, think aloud research showed that users experience considerable problems with understanding the assertions semantically and pragmatically, as well as with interpreting the results screen. Additionally, we found that users view the result screen as an end point rather than as a starting point for deliberation. We discuss some implications for theory and practice.

Die politische Landschaft der Niederlande wurde viele Jahre lang von drei Strömungen - den Christdemokraten, den Sozialdemokraten und den Liberalen - dominiert. Die Lage veränderte sich ab Mitte der 1960er Jahre: An die Stelle der vorherigen Stabilität trat eine immer grössere Unberechenbarkeit. Auch nahm die politische Zersplitterung zu und seit 2002 verzeichneten populistische Gruppierungen wiederholt Erfolge. Die raschen Veränderungen im Parteienspektrum sorgen bei oberflächlicher Betrachtung für eine Überbewertung der Unterschiede zwischen "damals" und "heute": Der aktuellen Instabilität steht die erstarrte Unbeweglichkeit der Vergangenheit gegenüber. Ein solches Bild ist jedoch eine Vereinfachung, denn auch in früheren Jahren konnten die politischen Spannungen eskalieren, und immer wieder scheiterten Kabinette vorzeitig. Neben allen Veränderungen sind somit auch Kontinuitäten und langfristig wirksame Traditionslinien in der niederländischen Politik zu beobachten. Der Sammelband Eine zersplitterte Landschaft geht auf diese Kontinuitäten und Veränderungen ein, indem er all jene Parteien betrachtet, die im Jahr 2017 in die Zweite Kammer des niederländischen Parlaments gewählt worden sind. Die älteste von ihnen existiert bereits seit beinahe 100 Jahren (SGP), die jüngsten Parteien (DENK und FvD) sind erst kurz vor der Wahl gegründet worden. Fast alle Beiträge sind von Vertretern der wissenschaftlichen Büros der Parteien verfasst worden, wodurch ein einzigartiger Blickwinkel entstanden ist: wissenschaftliche Distanz kombiniert mit einer Betrachtung von "innen heraus".

Few other countries are so interrelated with the world around us in political, economic, and social respects as the Netherlands. This means that the Dutch government needs to be alert in its response to the risks and opportunities presented by a rapidly changing world. Addressing this issue, the Scientific Council for Government Policy (wrr) offers some reflections in this report, guided by the question how the Netherlands can develop a foreign policy strategy that matches the changing power relations in the world and the radically changed character of international relations. The answer to this question is a reorientation. This means making transparent choices, making smarter use of Europe as our dominant arena, and, finally, choosing an approach that makes better use of the growing role of non-state actors. The report's recommendations not only underline the necessity of reorientation but also show how this could be accomplished in practice.

Y. Kleistra, Hollen of stilstaan. Beleidsverandering bij het Nederlandse ministerie van buitenlandse zaken P.R. Baehr, M.C. Castermans-Holleman, F. Grünfeld, Human rights in the foreign policy of the Netherlands E.M. van den Berg, The influence of domestic NGOs on Dutch human rights policy. Case studies on South Africa, Namibia, Indonesia and East Timor. The role of human rights in post-1945 Dutch foreign policy: Politicological and historical literature, Maarten KuitenbrouwerThe second Dutch government under Prime Minister Kok fell in 2002 following the publication of a critical report by the Dutch Institute for Wartime Documentation (NIOD) on the Srebenica issue. This event forms the starting point for a review of the recent literature on the role of human rights in Dutch foreign policy during the last few decades in both political science and history. Both disciplines share the 'decisionmaking analysis' in international relations theory as a common background. In addition, political scientists and historians have often found themselves researching the same human rights issues that affect Dutch relations with a series of non-Western countries. An explanation of Dutch policy is usually sought based on a combination of internaland external factors. In general, comparative analyses and research into its effectiveness are still conspicuous by their absence. All in all, there are more similarities than differences between recent political and historical studies on the role of human rights in Dutch foreign policy.

This paper - written for a conference held in Leuven (KUL) in 2001- offers a global analysis of the European Insolvency Regulation. At the time the paper was written, the Regulation was a very recent instrument. The paper reviews the Regulation based on previous experiences at harmonising the law of cross-border insolvencies (such as the European Insolvency Convention and the Istanbul Convention). Particular attention is paid to the issues of jurisdiction (which court has jurisdiction to open insolvency proceedings), jurisdiction conflicts (what happens if two courts decide to exercise jurisdiction simultaneously) and recognition and enforcement of foreign insolvency judgments.

The thesis is a qualitative social scientific study of the Dutch political discourse on multi-ethnic society between 1977 and 1995. The central questions are: 1. Have the Dutch political parties' views on minority policy generally changed between 1977 and 1995, and, if so, in what direction? 2. Was in the first half of the nineties more disagreement on this topic than in the eighties? 3. What exactly are the differences of opinion between the parties on the topic of integration of minorities? The research proceeds upon the theoretical assumption that three concepts - including their counterparts - play a central role in the political discourse on the multi-ethnic society: socio-cultural diversity (or homogeneity), socio-economic equality (or inequality), and political-juridical unity (or fragmentation). It is assumed that the perspectives on multi-ethnic society will be seen to differ in the political parties' interpretation and application of these concepts. The object of the research is approached in two ways. First the attitudes towards multi-ethnic society and minority policy are investigated for each political party separately. Next, the viewpoints of the parties are contextualized by examining the standpoints of the parliamentary groups of the parties in parliamentary debates on important government documents concerning minority policy. In addition the reactions of major minority organisations on these government documents are analyzed. A short answer to the first question is, that in general the viewpoints of the major political parties has shifted from a preference for a multicultural and group-oriented policy of emancipation in the eighties, to a preference for a more obligatory and individual-oriented policy of socio-economic integration in the nineties. An reply to the second question is, that in the political discourse under scrutiny, the consensus between the main political parties about the minority policy has increased rather than decreased. In order to answer the third question, in the conclusion a classification is made of the political parties' perspectives on integration that stresses the socio-economic, the socio-cultural and the political-juridical dimensions.

The framing of a message can affect the way people think about an issue, and the framing of attitude questions influences the opinions expressed. Current research investigated political emphasis framing in the context of Voting Advice Applications. In an online survey regarding the European Elections (2019), a conservative vs. progressive frame was manipulated across 15 questions. As the original VAA did not include introductory texts to the questions, a control condition without introduction texts was also added. Participants (N = 106) were randomly assigned to one of these three conditions. Results show that there is an effect for conservative introductions to elicit answers reflecting more progressive attitudes, but only for the group of respondents with conservative voting positions (PTV). This pattern could not be explained by political sophistication: higher political sophistication is related to a main effect of more progressive answering behaviour, but does not explain the framing effect for conservative frames in the conservative group.

'Will the Netherlands be defended?' The debate about NATO's main lines of defence at the beginning of the 1950sAt the beginning of the 1950s, the Netherlands would not have been able to defend itself in the event of a Soviet attack. Despite the fact that NATO, under the leadership of the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Eisenhower, and later General Ridgway, was in the process of rapidly building up its defences, it was still incapable of conducting a forward defence. The pivotal political and military issue in the short term centred on one question: Which areas in Western Europe could and should be kept and which not? Answers to this question exposed conflicting national interests and points of view, particularly those of the Dutch and the French. As it was taking a considerably long time to build up the Netherlands' defences, the Dutch government had very few trump cards to add weight to its demands. Indeed, in the summer of 1952, when Parliament asked to be given a precise account of how the Dutch defences were progressing, the government was practically boxed into a corner.

Response, Henk te VeldeDuring my research I have greatly benefited from the historiography of political parties and I agree with Bosmans that the relatively new approach of political culture should collaborate with classic political history. However, I am more interested in similarities between different political currents and how they compare with the international scene. Another area of particular interest for me is the public aspect of political leadership and how this relates to the time in which it takes place. The issue is, therefore, not the party political aspects of Colijn's leadership but rather the praise he received at that time from outside his own party. The most prominent political leaders were not modest administrators but 'partisan', controversial members of the best-organised and strongest parties, such as the orthodox Protestant ARP. Among many other things, I analyse the relevance of clichés about 'Calvinist' and 'religious' politics with regard to the public appeal of ex-orthodox Protestant Den Uyl. Unfortunately, however, Van Deursen seems to believe, unjustly, that I am expressing my own personal opinion on Calvinism.

Since the beginning of the 1980s the role of government has been discussed in the Netherlands and several other Western countries. In the Netherlands this discussion has led to severe changes in the structures and activities of several governmental organizations, particularly since 1985. Deregulation has been introduced, which has meant that, generally speaking, certain laws and rules have become less detailed or totally abolished. Moreover, there has been a tendency to introduce new organizational structures in governmental organizations. These new organizational structures could mean that certain tasks are relinquished, or that the way of organizing activities is changed. A general characteristic of these changes in organizational structures, which can take different forms and/or differ in specific details, is that governmental organizations are now governed in a less centralized way. The general concept of autonomization will be used in this paper to denote the different forms of decentralization. In general, autonomization of public organizations means that the political top management's direct control of certain tasks or activities will be diminished. External autonomization implies that, legally speaking, an independent organization comes into existence; and the politicians' responsibilities for the organization are diminished. In the case of internal autonomization the organization remains part of its parent organization, although it gains more freedom to conduct its own business. The political top management retains formal responsibility for the activities of the internally autonomized organization. Internal autonomization includes various forms of what is traditionally termed decentralization or divisionalization. Forms of external autonomization include, for example, privatization, contractorization (contracting-out) and the founding of a public corporation. So, autonomization comprises diverging forms of decentralization and internal and external contracting, of which privatization may be seen as the most extreme opposite of centralized governance. Generally speaking, a stronger form of autonomization means that the organization is subject to more direct influences of the market and/or is governed in a more "businesslike" way; i.e. in such a way that the principles and techniques of business administration play a more important role. This may also make the relationship with (what used to be) the parent organization more businesslike, inducing clearer agreements about prices, quantities and quality of goods and services. The introduction of these new organizational structures/forms can be considered an endeavour to maintain management control over governmental organizations. Management control is the whole range of means and activities through which political and civic managers try to ensure that an organization successfully adapts to changes in its environment, so that its continuity is safeguarded. This research project focuses on two elements, in particular, that may play an important role in management control (and that also might influence each other); i.e. changes in organizational structure (that is to say: the different forms of autonomization) and changes in the financial and economic management of the autonomized organization. Autonomization could be regarded as a change in governance structures or, more broadly, as a change in institutional structures or institutions. Generally speaking, neo-institutional economic theories see a striving for efficiency - or in stronger terms: the necessity for organizations to be efficient in order to survive - as the main reason for changes in organizational structure. The three following research questions were formulated: 1. is it possible to construct a theoretical concept, based on neo-institutional economics, to explain the management control and more specifically the autonomization of (parts of) governmental organizations?; 2. in the Dutch context what elements play a role in the choice of a particular form of management control and autonomization of governmental organizations?; 3. what changes occur in financial and economic management practices when governmental organizations are autonomized? These questions could be studied from, for example, the perspective of political science, sociology, or economics, or a combination of all these perspectives. Although non-economic aspects might also play an important role, the research problem is studied mainly from an economic point of view in this book. The main aim of this study is to gain an insight into the internal organizational processes and the effects of the autonomization of governmental organizations. The problem to be addressed is very complicated because the factors that may play a role are not at all clear. The phenomenon researched and its context cannot be separated clearly, causes and consequences cannot be separated easily, etc. Hence, the form of research that was chosen was case research. Case research was conducted for this study in six (parts of) governmental organizations which were autonomized to different degrees. In one case, autonomization had not been realized at the time of the research, because of serious delays. However, the information about the process of preparing for autonomization was sufficiently extensive and interesting in this case to justify its inclusion.

The article summarizes the results of the lexical studies of the Belarusian business monuments from the middle 16th to 18th centuries. The studies found the following results: 1)lexical units noted in business monuments of different genres can be divided into eight large thematic groups (legal, social and political, clerical, economic, household, professional and industrial, natural science vocabularies, and vocabulary that characterizes a person physically, mentally, and intellectually); religious, military, medical vocabularies, and lexical units from other spheres are represented to a lesser extent; polyfunctional vocabulary is highlighted separately; 2)taking into account the materials of the "Histaryčny sloŭnik bielaruskaj movy" ("Historical Dictionary of the Belarusian Language"), some innovations are determined, namely a) lexical units that were fixed in business writing during the specified period for the first time, b) previously known lexical units that implemented new meaning / new meanings in business writing during the specified period; 3) the dominance of certain thematic groups or their subgroups in each specific monument depends on its genre; 4) by style, one can distinguish lexemes, which were fixed in monuments of a) business content, b) business and secular-artistic content, c) business and religious content, d) business, religious and secular-artistic content during the period from the middle 16th to 18th centuries; 5) the extremely wide representation of Latinisms, the penetration and consolidation of which was influenced by extra- and intralinguistic factors, is a characteristic feature of the business writing vocabulary of the specified period. The results of the research will be important for the preparation and creation of scientific and theoretical works devoted to the evolution of the lexical system of the Belarusian language in general and its stylistic and genre varieties, in particular, to the characteristics of the vocabulary features of different Old Belarusian monuments; when compiling special lexicographic reference books, for example, a consolidated dictionary of business texts of a specific chronological section / local fixation / specific genre, etc. ; У статті узагальнено деякі результати вивчення словникового запасу старобілоруської ділової писемності середини XVI – XVIII ст. щодо його тематичної характеристики, поповнення, стилістичного та жанрового розподілу, представлення в ньому слів іншомовного (латинського) походження; також запропоновано напрямки для подальшого використання результатів дослідження.

The article summarizes the results of the lexical studies of the Belarusian business monuments from the middle 16th to 18th centuries. The studies found the following results: 1)lexical units noted in business monuments of different genres can be divided into eight large thematic groups (legal, social and political, clerical, economic, household, professional and industrial, natural science vocabularies, and vocabulary that characterizes a person physically, mentally, and intellectually); religious, military, medical vocabularies, and lexical units from other spheres are represented to a lesser extent; polyfunctional vocabulary is highlighted separately; 2)taking into account the materials of the "Histaryčny sloŭnik bielaruskaj movy" ("Historical Dictionary of the Belarusian Language"), some innovations are determined, namely a) lexical units that were fixed in business writing during the specified period for the first time, b) previously known lexical units that implemented new meaning / new meanings in business writing during the specified period; 3) the dominance of certain thematic groups or their subgroups in each specific monument depends on its genre; 4) by style, one can distinguish lexemes, which were fixed in monuments of a) business content, b) business and secular-artistic content, c) business and religious content, d) business, religious and secular-artistic content during the period from the middle 16th to 18th centuries; 5) the extremely wide representation of Latinisms, the penetration and consolidation of which was influenced by extra- and intralinguistic factors, is a characteristic feature of the business writing vocabulary of the specified period. The results of the research will be important for the preparation and creation of scientific and theoretical works devoted to the evolution of the lexical system of the Belarusian language in general and its stylistic and genre varieties, in particular, to the characteristics of the vocabulary features of different Old Belarusian monuments; when compiling special lexicographic reference books, for example, a consolidated dictionary of business texts of a specific chronological section / local fixation / specific genre, etc. ; У статті узагальнено деякі результати вивчення словникового запасу старобілоруської ділової писемності середини XVI – XVIII ст. щодо його тематичної характеристики, поповнення, стилістичного та жанрового розподілу, представлення в ньому слів іншомовного (латинського) походження; також запропоновано напрямки для подальшого використання результатів дослідження.

Simon van Slingelandt (1664-1736) has been in the service of the Republic of the United Netherlands during his entire working life. In 1690 he started his career as secretary of the Council of State (Raad van State). In 1725 he was appointed Treasurer-General and in 1727 he accepted the position of Grand Pensionary over Holland and West Friesland. In this final position he was 'le premier homme de la Republique' during the Second Stadtholderless period. This period commenced after the death of stadtholder-king William III in 1702 and would last until 1747. As a civil servant, he has left a great impression upon the daily affairs in both domestic and foreign political business. He sharply perceived how hairline cracks in the union of the seven provinces (Utrecht 1579) threatened to become fractures. After the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1713), the Republic faced hard times. This incited Van Slingelandt to write critical texts. In both a personal capacity and as secretary of the Council of State, he pointed out the danger of a collapse of the system of government to the domestic allies. He also made propositions to improve the political-administrative system and financial policy. Van Slingelandt gathered these ideas in several treatises. These writings circulated during his lifetime, but were published later, in 1784-1785, titled Staatkundige Geschriften (Political Writings), fifty years after his death. This book contains a complete analysis of these treatises – as yet missing from historiography – which is preceded by an extensive biographical chapter about Van Slingelandt.

The Anti-Revolutionary People behind the Voters. Fact or fiction? The Electoral Support of the ARP around 1885 and in 1918The rallying cry 'The people behind the voters' symbolised the political discrimination against the anti-revolutionaries. The restricted franchise, based on tax assessments, was supposed to favour the liberals. It is, however, doubtful whether this rallying cry represented any real form of discrimination or whether it should be regarded instead as part of the self-image of the antirevolutionaries. This is hard to determine. The number of seats gained during elections is not a very good benchmark because the absolute majority run-off system (constituency voting system with a second ballot) forced political parties to look for electoral cooperation. The size of the electoral support, on the other hand, can be estimated, when the election results of several carefully selected constituencies from the 1880s are compared with the election results of 1918. At this point, the votes were being cast under the regime of proportional representation and universal male suffrage. The anti-revolutionary electoral gains in 1918 turned out to be so small, that the rallying cry 'The people behind the voters' must be regarded as being out of touch with reality. Already, under the very restricted suffrage of the 1880s, the anti-revolutionaries had almost reached the peak of their electoral support.