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This study deals with the rise and decline of the system of unelected representative bodies that accompanied post-war democracy in the Netherlands. After World War II, the number of these unelected representative bodies grew spectacularly, but from the seventies onwards, it started to decrease. How can we account for this remarkable political change? In traditional historiography, this change is associated with the pillarisation of Dutch society, the institutionalisation of corporatist arrangements, the emergence of new social movements or the deep-rooted practice of consensus building. As these accounts turn out to be problematic, this study focuses on the democratic character of unelected representative bodies. Chapter 1 introduces a framework for analysing the democratic character of these bodies, based on the criteria of a democratic political order as identified by R.A. Dahl. The framework encompasses the constitution of the domains represented by unelected bodies; the recruitment of their members; the tasks they fulfilled; and their internal decision-making process. Chapter 2 presents the cases used to analyse how the democratic character of the system of unelected representative bodies developed. These cases are the Sociaal-Economische Raad (1950), the Landbouwschap (1954 - 1995), the Nationale Raad voor Maatschappelijk Werk (1946 - 1989) and the Raad voor de Kunst (1955 - 1995). Chapter 3 shows that the represented domains were either constituted from above by the state or from below by interest groups. The involvement of interest groups led to the exclusion of rivals and, later on, to petrifaction, with the composition of unelected bodies remaining the same despite fundamental social changes. Chapter 4 highlights a similar pattern as the members delegated by interest groups managed to exclude a large number of newcomers. This resulted in a fierce critique of the involvement of interest groups in member recruitment and led to a new generation of unelected councils composed of independent experts. Chapter ...

Modalities of censorship, disciplining practices and film. A comparative analysis of the historical reception of Sergei Eistenstein's battleship potemkin (1925) in Belgium and the Netherlands This article deals with the historical reception and censorship of one of the most controversial movies in film history, Sergei M. Eisenstein's Soviet-Russian propaganda film battleship potemkin (1925). After a short overview of its turbulent censorship in major Western European countries, the manuscript compares the Belgian and the Dutch cases. This comparative approach is useful in order to understand the differential effectiveness of the various forces trying to discipline the movie – from local municipalities to political parties, pressure groups and the industry itself. Besides the observation that the Dutch and Belgian cases strongly differ, also from those in countries with an obligatory national censorship system, the article demonstrates how the potemkin event became a site of struggle, the target of intense ideological pressures, debate and different types – modalities – of 'censorship'.

In 1635 or shortly thereafter, a Dutch ship was laden with all sorts of materials and products, mostly metals, but also textiles from the booming wool industries in both Flanders and Holland, a shipment of leather and exotic ivory. It was a ship of considerable size (at least 300 last) and departed from the Dutch Republic at a time of profound troubles. The Eighty Years' War between the Republic and Spain was far from settled. War at sea was unremitting and intensifying, with Dunkirk privateers an unruly menace to Dutch shipping. Spanish rule in the southern Low Countries was highly militarised, and constant campaigns were waged against it from the North. Central Europe was devastated by the Thirty Years' War, which had entered a new phase through new alliances. The heavy and strategically valuable cargo of the Dutch ship was assembled from North and South, as well as from a range of places in central Europe. The ship departed for a destination that it never reached. It sank off the coast of Texel, where it was discovered 350 years later. From 1985 to 1999 the wreck site and finds were subject to archaeological research, producing information on the ship, its setting and historical context as well as on the production and distribution of the individual shipments in the cargo, and informing us about the structure of early modern industry and trade, operating despite and because of the war. The present study, initiated by Wilma Gijsbers in 2010 and supported by the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE), the Maritime Archaeology Programme at the University of Southern Denmark (MAP-SDU) and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO; a one-year Odyssee grant), is the first to bring together all this evidence and evaluate it as a whole.

Abstract It is essential for democracy that political parties should act within their promulgated policy frameworks, which are formally represented in election programmes. If political parties deviate from this principle, the election would lose its meaning, jeopardising democracy. In this respect, planning in Groningen in the 1970s, which realised progressive plans like the traffic circulation plan, was democratic, although it was criticised for lacking public participation. However, planning in the 1980s casts serious doubt on its democratic nature. Various large-scale projects were promoted, and they caused harsh criticism even within the government party, Labour Party. This paper focuses on four projects, that is, the PTT (office development), Brink (residential towers), Casino and Museum, all of which were planned in or next to the inner city of Groningen in the 1980s. This paper will examine these projects in terms of the policy frameworks of the Labour Party, which were created in the 1970s. These projects brought about drastic change of historical landscape, and were clearly contrary to the party frameworks or those measures that were introduced to guarantee the frameworks, such as the local land use plan. As a result, they gave rise to not only strong opposition among citizens, but also criticism of party members who still cherished those party frameworks.

One of the unmistakable trends in current country house research is the growing interest in the landscape context of country houses. The unquestioned emphasis on the main house and the garden is increasingly giving way to an approach that includes or focuses on the wider setting: village, nature, town, infrastructure, farms, churches, and other country houses. This article sketches the rise of this approach and offers an overview of the various perspectives. Among the aspects covered by landscape studies are country house regions, choice of location, the productive landscape, infrastructure, the political landscape and the mental landscape. Although this growing interest in the landscape setting is one of the most important recent developments in country house research, most of these studies are predominantly descriptive. This article calls for the establishment of a firmer methodological and theoretical underpinning – a task to which it is to be hoped that future researchers will devote themselves. ; Een van de onmiskenbare trends in het huidige buitenplaatsenonderzoek is de toegenomen aandacht voor de landschappelijke context van buitenplaatsen. De vanzelfsprekende nadruk op het hoofdhuis en de tuin maakt steeds vaker plaats voor een benadering die ook de wijdere omgeving (dorp, natuur, stad, infrastructuur, boerderijen, kerken, andere buitenplaatsen) in het onderzoek betrekt of als onderwerp heeft. Dit artikel schetst de opkomst van deze benadering en biedt een overzicht van de verschillende invalshoeken. Landschappelijke studies onderscheiden onder meer buitenplaatsenregio's, vestigingslocaties, het productielandschap, de buitenplaats en infrastructuur of het politieke of mentale landschap. Hoewel de aandacht voor het landschap een van de belangrijkste recente ontwikkelingen is in onderzoek naar de buitenplaats, valt op dat de meeste studies voornamelijk beschrijvend van aard zijn. Dit artikel bepleit een steviger methodologisch en theoretisch fundament; een taak waaraan toekomstige onderzoekers zich ...

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.

In the Fourth National Spatial Policy Plan Extra (1990) the development areas were pointed out (the so-called "Vinex-areas"). This encouraged project developers to buy large and strategic situated properties. The key question is how to assure that also next generations of inhabitants, politicians and developers will still be prepared to invest in quality improvement. The concept of Sustainable Spatial Quality has been examined from the perspective chosen by the Brundtland Commission in its famous report 'Our Common Future' (1987). Quality Assurance is a concept made operational in Quality Management practices based on the ISO 9000 standards. The essential mechanism of Quality Assurance is the Deming-cycle In Vinex-area development in The Netherlands three types of PPP are fairly common: the so-called 'Development-Claim', the Joint Venture and the Concession. A basic assumption behind the effectiveness of Quality Assurance is the ability of controlling human behaviour and, in our case, spatial planning and development processes by means of institutional systems. Institutional governance is based on the idea that in a consistent institutional context different people will act more or less similar in a predictable way. Scott (2001) provides us with a theoretical framework based on an extensive and broad research of (neo)institutional literature. By combining the scientific work of economists, social and political scientists he creates a concept for the analysis of institutions. This concept consists of three types of institutional systems: Regulative, Normative and Cultural-cognitive. The Regulative system is typical for the Development-Claim model. The Joint Venture however is based on dialogue and negotiation on an equal level between public and private parties. The effectiveness of the Concession model for the public interest is determined by the way the government uses the willingness of private parties to go into competition. The empirical research was conducted in three different Vinex-areas: Leidsche Rijn near Utrecht, Vathorst near Amersfoort and Ypenburg near The HagueThe research included analysis of plans, contracts and documents followed by a series of interviews with stakeholders. Quality Assurance is failing on several critical points. Indifferent of the PPP-type the weakest elements in the process are the poorly developed interactive involvement of (potential) user groups in the planning process, the inability of both public and private parties to react adequately on changing circumstances and preferences of user groups and the lack of competition for area development. There is no 'best' PPP for assuring Sustainable Spatial Quality. Our recommendations to optimise the quality assurance function are partly generally applicable and partly specified for each type of PPP separately. Generally applicable is the recommendation for improving the interactivity of the planning process as well as enhancing a more proactive strategy of anticipation on changing user preferences. We need empowerment of the civil society, led by an independent process-manager and using a suitable framework for the debate. Anticipation on changing user-preferences can be improved by introducing periodic evaluations. The quality assurance function can also profit from introducing more competition, for example by awarding efforts of private parties to make their plans more sustainable.

Changes in Dutch attitudes towards the European Union For decades, the Dutch were seen as relatively positive towards the European Union. However, in 2005 a majority of the Dutch population voted against the proposed European Constitution. Therefore, in this article we examine to what extent the Dutch 'no' marks a sudden change in attitudes, or is merely a manifestation of a gradual trend that started at an earlier stage of the European integration process. We raise the question to what extent attitudes towards the European Union have changed in the Netherlands, and further ask to what extent these changes can be attributed to characteristics of the context and the life course. We derive hypotheses from theories on the influence of birth cohort, societal context and life course on attitude changes. In order to test these hypotheses, we employ Eurobarometersurveys of 1973 to 2004, as well as additional data at the contextual level. Our findings suggest that in the Netherlands attitudes towards the European Union have become more negative since the early nineties, after becoming more positive in the preceding years. While characteristics of the birth cohort and the life course do not account for these changes, the development towards more political integration seems to provide an interesting explanation. However, even after adding respondents' characteristics at the individual level to our models, variance in attitudes towards the European Union is hardly explained. Even though differences between social groups exist, attitudes towards the European Union seem to be largely unexplained.

The Province of Gelderland has long boasted a large number of country houses and landed estates, which over time coalesced into estate landscapes around the historical capitals of the Duchy of Guelders quarters of Nijmegen, Arnhem and Zutphen. Rapidly increasing urbanization from the end of the nineteenth century onwards threatened the coherence and accessibility of these landscapes. Gelderland's largest cities, Arnhem and Nijmegen, watched in dismay as many country houses and landed estates fell victim to subdivision and development. In response they started to buy up portions of that estate landscape to ensure that they would remain available to city dwellers. In addition, the 'safety net' provided by newly established nature and landscape organizations, in particular Natuurmonumenten and Geldersch Landschap & Kasteelen, also contributed to preservation and permanent accessibility by offering landed families the opportunity to keep their estate intact, albeit no longer under their ownership. Similar motives – the need to preserve attractive, accessible walking areas for the increasingly urbanized society – underpinned the government's introduction of the Nature Conservation Act in 1928. The Act was invoked more frequently in Gelderland than in any other province. It promoted the opening up of private properties as well as the preservation of the cultural value of the kind of 'natural beauty' to be found on landed estates. After the Second World War, in addition to resorting to the Nature Conservation Act, the owners of country houses and landed estates could avail themselves of an increasing variety of grants aimed at preserving (publicly accessible) nature, landscape and heritage, although the emphasis was firmly on nature. Estate landscapes like the Veluwezoom and the County of Zutphen were eventually safeguarded by a patchwork of different government regulations. In the twenty-first century, government policy shifted towards providing financial support for both public and private contributions to ...

Between 1949 and 1962 the Netherlands renounced its sovereignty over most of its overseas territories. Nevertheless, during the entire period of the Cold War, the Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN) stood by its point of view that it had a global task to fulfil. This military-naval deployment, outside the NATO treaty area during and shortly after the Cold War in relation to the structural global ambitions of the Royal Netherlands Navy's leadership, is the central theme of this study. This theme is analysed on the basis of theories and an understanding of multinational fleet operations after 1945 and Dutch policy regarding naval operations outside the NATO treaty area, but above all through regional case studies (Korean War 1950-1955, operations around the Arabian peninsula 1984-2000, and in the Adriatic Sea and Montenegrin waters 1992-2001). These case studies were examined by addressing the following central questions: to what extent did these missions involve a traditional approach to Dutch foreign policy? To what extent did the Navy's leadership influence the political-strategic decision-making on these out-of-area operations? To what extent were Dutch tasks and operations different from those of coalition partners, specifically those of the British Royal Navy, which the Royal Netherlands Navy considered to be its 'sister navy'? To what extent did the existing national and international perceptions of the RNLN influence Dutch decision-making on these missions, and how much did the participation in multinational fleet operations subsequently contribute to the objectives the Dutch government had in mind? In all the three case studies, the national and international perception of the Netherlands as a maritime nation and the ability to deploy high-quality navy units were taken into account in the Dutch government's decision-making regarding the RNLN participation in multinational fleet operations. The missions always received international, and especially British and American, appreciation and respect. The fact that ...

The right-wing PVV and the left-wing SP are seen as populist parties who are fierce ideological adversaries in the Dutch political spectrum. We study the similarities and differences in municipal contexts that explain their electoral success. Results of the 2010 national elections at the municipality level are analyzed for nearly all (N=403) Dutch municipalities. Hypotheses are formulated based on integrated group threat theory and relative deprivation theory. Results indicate similarities but also clear differences in the contexts in which SP and PVV thrive. PVV is more successful in municipalities with more immigrants and a higher average perception of unsafety, SP thrives more under local socioeconomic deprivation.

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.

leyds-60-8116.pdf created from original pamphlet in the WJ Leyds Collection held in the Africana Section of the Stellenbosch University Library and Information Service. ; Manual on the Law of Insolvency (No. 21 of 1880), amended by Law No. 5 of 1893 of the South African Republic. ; Title and text in English or Dutch.

leyds-31237.pdf created from original pamphlet in the WJ Leyds Collection held in the Africana Section of the Stellenbosch University Library and Information Service. ; Dutch and English pamphlet on Olive Schreiner's address on the Anglo-Boer War. ; Text in Dutch and English. Bound back to back.

The standard picture of public governance in the Dutch Republic (1579-1795) is one of consultation with multiple stakeholders, peaceful negotiations with representatives from a range of governmental institutions, and agreements and compromise. This picture has been the subject of much debate among historians and other scholars. One question concerns the extent to which this kind of governance evolved from the traditional practices of water authorities, as these institutions emerged very early, at the end of the thirteenth century. A further question is whether it is correct to assume that these peaceful negotiations did in fact involve participation by a wide range of societal stakeholders. This book contributes to this debate by presenting the results of new research into the development of governance by water authorities prior to 1800. In the late Middle Ages and Early Modern period, these institutions changed as a result of ecological, socio-economic and political developments. The central question is how these developments affected the evolution of and governance within the water authorities. The research focuses on two inter-local water authorities: first, the water authority of the Bunschoten Veen and Velden dikes in the Province of Utrecht; and second, the water authority of Mastenbroek polder in the Province of Overijssel. How were landholders represented in such authorities, and what was the relationship between developments in representation and participation in decision-making? The positions and backgrounds of the board members of these two water authorities were investigated, as well as the process of decision-making. The theoretical framework was provided by theories of consociationalism (Lijphart 1968 and Putnam 1993), in which peaceful governance is defined in terms of consensus politics or politics of accommodation. A set of criteria was formulated to assess the occurrence of participative decision-making by stakeholders. These criteria were tested against the discussions and decisions found in ...