Suchergebnisse

PO surveys from 1979 to 1981 are analyzed to assess changing Dutch attitudes on foreign & defense policies & the influence of pressure group activism, particularly that of the peace movement. Despite difficulties in data interpretation, findings indicate a greater change in intensity than in content of such attitudes; while there is quasi-unanimity to maintain NATO membership & balance of power, the majority of Rs want no new nuclear arms probably due to the peace movement, & wish to remove existing ones from Dutch territory & cease nuclear activity in the Dutch armed forces. Potential political gains by parties espousing these goals, particularly the Dutch Labor Party, are predicted. Contradictions in the available data are noted, however, & the necessity of more detailed research is emphasized. 35 Tables. Modified HA.

The central question posed for this symposium is from where the support should come for the European project to increase the legitimacy of the European Union and further integration and expansion. Lately, both public-opinion research (Eurobarometer) and motivation for the elections of the European Parliament have been low, criticism relatively high and lively. The symposium stresses the importance of actors and organizations coming from the midfield of civil society. Frequently cheered as the spinning wheel in the democratic system of national states within European reality, it has an important role in the continuation of legitimacy and Europe's democratic level. A presentation of three Dutch and a Belgium contributions. References. O. van Zijl

The relation between political scientists and the media is fragile; from both sides opportunism can have a major influence. Both political scientists as well as politicians should thus reflect on the role both parties can and want to assume. The symposium presents 2 contributions coming from both sides, offering analysis and insight. The first article by Dave Sinardet discusses important aspects of the role political scientists can play in the media. He states that it is the responsibility of social scientists to participate in the public debate and to adjust form, style and use of language of the media in order to shape a public opinion. The second article by the editor of a Belgium newspaper incites political scientists to closer examine their wishes and aspirations regarding their role in the media. O. van Zijl

Reading the news about Iran today one can hardly imagine that relations between the Netherlands and Iran were excellent until 1979. Mohammed-Reza Pahlavi, the last shah of Persia, was known in The Netherlands as a visionary and reformer. Persia was represented as a mythical land with an ancient civilization. The Dutch royal family enjoyed visiting the shah, and large and small Dutch companies were successful in Iran.

When in the 1970s awareness spread about repression under the shah, the Dutch government was faced with difficult choices. How could these relations be continued, now that public opinion had turned against it? The Dutch government decided to ignore the criticisms, and firmly held on to the idea of the shah as an enlightened despot. As such, it did not see the Iranian Revolution coming, and suffered the consequences.

In the public debate and amongst scientists anxiety prevails concerning the situation of modern parliamentary democracy regarding nearly all established of nearly democracies. The concern focuses on the electoral loss of middle parties and heavily fluctuating election results, and the rise of radical Left and Right, where words such as pallet democracy, crisis and Weimar republic are used. The author sketches the outlines of different research directions he studied regarding European politics: voter behavior; decreasing importance of the Left-Right antagonism; decreasing political faith; increasing numbers of extreme Right parties. This to study more closely the different aspects of the alleged crisis of European party democracies (do citizens have unrealistically high expectations of government; the evolution from cartel parties to campaign parties, including the growing importance of the media; lack of party representation for large groups of citizens). Foremost, the author mentions that neo-liberal economic policies of the European Union do not parallel public opinion of EU member states. Figures. O. van Zijl

Trust in citizens' outlooks
Trust in citizens' outlooks
Since 2008 the Netherlands Institute for Social Research | SCP conducts the Citizens' Outlooks Barometer (COB), which explores current trends in public opinion in the Netherlands. In the COB quantitative and qualitative research methods are combined to signal trends and new issues, to explain group differences, and to investigate the feelings and arguments behind public concerns. We use focus groups and open-ended survey questions for qualitative research. A main topic in COB has been the development and diversity of trust in political institutions. By combining numbers and arguments, we have tried to put political trust in perspective (it is often more a diffuse image than a deep conviction) and give a better understanding of the (asymmetric) reasons for trust and for distrust. We deal with the usual problems of representation and generalization in qualitative research as good as we can by discussing interpretations in our diverse research team. A main challenge is now to develop more systematic and less time-consuming ways to analyze large sets of open answers in surveys.

It is often suggested that the nationalization of local elections has increased. As a result, a hypothesis could be that the mutual differences between policy programs of local divisions of the same national party decrease. In this contribution, we focus on the local election of October 8th 2006 in order to analyze these mutual differences. The aim of this contribution is to measure the homogeneity or heterogeneity of the policy positions of the local divisions of national political parties, on a range of substantive issues on which they have the freedom to differ. Therefore, we compare the opinions of local party agents within the different party families. We use the results of a survey among the representatives of the local departments of the different political parties in the run-up to the local elections. Our research shows that, regarding to the selected questions, in general the local divisions speak with one voice. Our analysis does not indicate that there is a large mixture of visions between divisions of the same national party. Besides, this analysis shows that in general, the size of the municipality can seldom be used in indicating the relative disagreement within political families. This level of agreement is the largest within the green party & the smallest within the liberal family. Those are also the two parties of which the local agents say that the influence of supra-local party levels is small, compared to representatives of other political families. Tables. Adapted from the source document.