The democratic legitimacy of Dutch municipalities has been under stress. Decreasing voter turnouts in municipal elections questions the democratic credentials of municipalities. Even council...Show moreThe democratic legitimacy of Dutch municipalities has been under stress. Decreasing voter turnouts in municipal elections questions the democratic credentials of municipalities. Even council members question the strength of the councils to hold their executives accountable. The perceived need to strengthen local democracies has also come forth by clearly separating the functions of the executive and the municipal council or by decentralising responsibilities to municipalities. This thesis is written to show if the council members are capable of holding the executive accountable. This is done by comparing different circumstances and how these affect the degree in which council members vote along the lines of coalition and opposition. Three cases were used for this, namely The Hague, Strijen and Zoeterwoude. The results show that council members show similar voting patters compared to Dutch members of parliament. While unanimous votes occur often, it can also be seen that local opposition parties are equally capable of holding the executive accountable compared to the national opposition parties.Show less
This study examines the organization and funding of the election campaigns of independent local parties in the Netherlands. Due to their representation in the national parliament, Dutch national...Show moreThis study examines the organization and funding of the election campaigns of independent local parties in the Netherlands. Due to their representation in the national parliament, Dutch national parties receive public subsidy. As such, they are able to transfer funds to their local divisions in the municipalities across the country, in order to finance their party activities including election campaigns. Independent local parties, however, do not qualify for these funds, since they are not represented in the Dutch legislature. How, then, do independent local parties fund and organize their election campaigns? Based on a survey amongst more than 300 respondents, the most important campaign activities, most common expenditures and the most common sources of income could be identified. The most common methods of campaigning include placing campaign boards and posters throughout the municipality, participating in election debates, flyer actions, publishing the election program on the party’s website, performing local radio or television shows, advertising in local or regional newspapers and enhancing familiarity by using Facebook. The most parties have spent their money on campaign boards and posters, advertisements and flyer actions, while the most money per party is spent on advertisement, canvassing and other expenditures. On the revenue side, the most parties received their money for the campaign budget from council member contributions, membership fees and private member donations, while the highest amounts of money per party were received from council member contributions, aldermen contributions and other income sources. It is also found that the number of party members, the municipality size, the number of council members and the number of aldermen on the one hand, and the size of the campaign budget on the other hand are positively correlated. Their explanatory value on the organization of the election campaigns, however, is low, just as the influence of the party type. While about 45 percent of the respondents thinks public funding of their election campaigns is necessary, a larger proportion of them thinks public funding would be a desirable development. The key argument is that almost all respondent want a level playing field when it comes to regulations on private donations and public party funding. The results of this study show that proponents and opponents of public party funding both think that independent local parties and national parties should be treated the same in this regard.Show less
Non-material factors, such as a person’s ideas and values concerning Europe, are very influential with respect to the way persons perceive Europe (Vollaard, n.d., p. 2). These associations with...Show moreNon-material factors, such as a person’s ideas and values concerning Europe, are very influential with respect to the way persons perceive Europe (Vollaard, n.d., p. 2). These associations with Europe are formed by a person’s upbringing, but also through education. Several studies have researched the relationship between a person’s level of education and his or her support for Europe. These researchers show that generally the higher educated Dutch people are the more positive they are about Europe (Dekker et al., 2007, p. 19; Dekker and Ridder, 2012, p. 56; Hakhverdian et al., 2013, p. 531; Op de Woerd, 2014, section para. 13, own translation; Dekker and Den Ridder, 2014, p. 25)? Could the reason for this be that the way Europe is represented at lower education levels is different from the representation of Europe at higher education levels? The main research aim of this thesis is to find out if lower educated obtain different information than higher education concerning Europe in social studies’ textbooks used at VMBO-bk, VMBO-kgt, HAVO and VWO in Dutch secondary education. It is also possible that the amount of information students receive about Europe differs from one education level to the next. As such, a possible explanation of the relationship between a person’s level of education and his or her support for Europe may be the way Europe is framed in different social studies textbooks. This thesis uses content analysis to explore and describe how Europe is represented in social studies textbooks in the Netherlands. Firstly, this work analyses how much information about Europe can be found in Dutch social studies textbooks by counting the number of pages. The results show that the lowest amount of information about Europe is found at VMBO-bk where, on average, 9.33 pages per book refer to Europe. The highest amount is found in VWO social studies text books with an average of 56.76 pages per book referring to Europe. Secondly, this thesis examines the positive and negative associations with Europe occurring in these textbooks. The outcomes are that at VMBO-bk and VMBO-kgt no specific positive associations prevails, whereas at HAVO and VWO, the focus lies on European economic and trade benefits. At VMBO-bk and VMBO-kgt no negative notion prevails, whereas at HAVO and VWO, the negative association ‘loss of sovereignty’ took prevalence over the other negative associations. Thirdly, the thesis analyses how the Netherlands is portrayed in the 12 textbooks, because the views of the nation itself and its relation to Europe also influences the way Europe is perceived (Harmsen, 2008, p. 318). The research finds that many different associations with the Netherlands exist in these books: from an international trade perspective, to a heaven for freedom, to a welfare state. Moreover, the fit between the associations with Europe and with the Netherlands have been explored. It was discovered that at both education levels a clear fit could not be found.Show less
The expression of public opinion varies depending on the issue. This variation could be linked to highly salient issues. We argue that public opinion will be more involved in the case of highly...Show moreThe expression of public opinion varies depending on the issue. This variation could be linked to highly salient issues. We argue that public opinion will be more involved in the case of highly salient issues. In such circumstances, it would be interesting to examine if a higher saliency leads to a more accountable government. While some scholars link foreign policy with domestic debate, few of them link accountability with saliency as a means to verify the importance of domestic factors. Therefore, we will add new elements to the existing literature by focusing on this link. The question guiding our research will try to confirm that governments give more account when facing a salient issue within public opinion. Our question is the following: Does the high salience of a foreign policy issue have an influence on the extent of account-giving by democratic governments to citizens?Show less
The role of ideology and religion on voting behaviour has declined. But, what does then determine voting behaviour nowadays? New dimensions and (short-term) factors seem to play a role and there is...Show moreThe role of ideology and religion on voting behaviour has declined. But, what does then determine voting behaviour nowadays? New dimensions and (short-term) factors seem to play a role and there is more attention to the personalization thesis. Some politicians are treated as celebrities and image, appearance and also clothing are subjects considered to be important. The suits of Mark Rutte and Diederik Samsom have been widely discussed in the run-up to the 2012 Dutch parliamentary elections. Does fashion rule? The central question of this master thesis is: Does the clothing style of politicians influence trait perceptions and voting behaviour of Dutch voters? A quantitative analysis of data obtained by an experimental study will be the basis for this research. Unknown men will be photographed in different clothing styles, which randomly assigned groups of respondents will evaluate on the basis of six leadership traits. What will be analysed is if indeed the men in suits with ties are statistically significant more positively evaluated on the six leadership traits compared to, for example, men in jeans and a casual sweater. By testing four hypotheses, an answer to the research question can be given and the implications of the results will be discussed. This analysis distinguishes between the assessment by men and by women, by different age groups and by clothing style of respondents themselves. In a first step to discover the influence of clothing on the evaluation of Dutch politicians and voting behaviour, this study focuses only on male politicians, mainly because men still dominate among party leaders in national parliamentary elections. What seems to come out of the questionnaires overall, is the fact that it depends on the person what he has to wear. Faces are more important when evaluating unknown persons in pictures. Clothing style can in some way increase or decrease the evaluation scores of some traits, but no clear relationship is to be found between certain traits and a specific clothing style. Politicians’ clothing can reinforce certain leadership traits in the eyes of voters, however, it differs between politicians which clothing style enhances which leadership traits. In general, an in-between clothing style yields the most positive responses and the most votes. But when looking independently at each trait, quite different evaluations appear between different persons. Some small changes in methodology and recruitment of respondents will make the findings of further research stronger. In further research, women definitely have to be included as stimuli persons and possibly political attitude also.Show less
