Let us not be too hasty in proclaiming a crisis of democracy. Despite the wave of populist outpourings, the culture of democracy is more firmly established than ever. This is what Jacques Thomassen will be telling his audience on Friday 24 September during his farewell speech as professor of political science and university lecturer at the University of Twente. One of the speakers at his farewell symposium will be the State Secretary for the Interior, Ank Bijleveld.
Any thoughts of a decline in political trust in the Netherlands do not stand up to empirical criticism, suggests Thomassen in his farewell speech. Studies have shown that political trust in the 1970s and early 1980s was in fact lower than in the years following. International comparative studies also present the Netherlands in a relatively positive light. Nowhere in Europe is the faith in government, parliament, political parties and politicians as high as in the Netherlands.
The Netherlands did admittedly experience its first signs of revolt, or at least expressions of social discontent, during the 2002 elections involving Pim Fortuyn. However, as Thomassen points out, we are talking here primarily about people who, rather than demanding a greater role in the political decision-making process, simply wanted their voices to be heard. The volatility of the Dutch electorate is, in his view, not a conclusive indication of a decline in political trust: voters may well switch party alliances but they do so always within the same political spectrum.
CARTEL DEMOCRACY
And yet, cannot the massive influx of political parties opposing the political establishment - first the LPF (Pim Fortuyn List) and now the PVV (Dutch Freedom Party) - be seen as a clear sign of an erosion of political trust? Not in the sense that a nation has become irrational and risen up against the political elite, claims Thomassen. Pim Fortuyn's sudden success and that of his party, the LPF, can certainly in part be accredited to the party's policies. However, there were instances where dissatisfaction with government policy boiled over into dissatisfaction with the political system and manifested itself in a vote for a political party that opposed the political establishment. This was in response to the Dutch political system of the time (in the form of the 'Purple' coalition), which showed all the signs of a 'cartel democracy'. It would certainly help the situation if government coalitions were to lean either to the right or to the left and not down the middle.
RULE OF LAW
The challenges we are now facing, however, are merely an extension of the democratization process as it was at its inception back in the nineteenth century; the goal being to develop a more direct relationship between the will of the people and government policy. The culture of democracy is more firmly established than ever before, but this applies more to democratic values than legal values. The values of the rule of law, or rather the application of these, belong more to the cultural heritage of the elite than to a broad strata of the people. This creates obvious tensions that populist movements are eager to capitalize on. But any comparison with the 1930s or terrifying visions of a 'revolt of the masses' lacks any clear rational basis, claims the Twente political scientist.
SYMPOSIUM
Speakers at the farewell symposium are: Ank Bijleveld-Schouten, State Secretary for the Interior, Professor Jan van Deth, Professor of Political Science at Universität Mannheim, and Pippa Norris, McGuire Lecturer in Comparative Politics at Harvard University.
Note to the press:The farewell speech "De permanente crisis van de democratie" (the permanent crisis of democracy) will be available on request in electronic format after 16.00 on Friday 24 September. Until that time, the speech will be under embargo. For details, please contact Berend Meijering, Communications Department at the University of Twente on +31-(0)53-4894385 or at b.meijering@utwente.nl. For more information regarding the symposium, please contact Janine van der Woude, School of Management and Governance on +31-(0)53-4893270, or at j.k.vanderwoude@utwente.nl.
