This thesis explores how the Christian Democratic Appeal’s (CDA) attitude towards the Israeli- Palestinian conflict has affected the party’s understanding of its key principle solidarity during its...Show moreThis thesis explores how the Christian Democratic Appeal’s (CDA) attitude towards the Israeli- Palestinian conflict has affected the party’s understanding of its key principle solidarity during its most prominent years in government between 1980 and 2010. By analyzing primary source material in the form of personal statements from key CDA members, election programs and official party documentation, it focusses on two aspects of the CDA’s identity: (1) its membership of a family of Christian democratic parties, whose political identity is based on an explicit appeal to Christian values in general; and (2) its primary objective of both “nationally and internationally appealing to the responsibility of the strong to show solidarity with the weak” as laid out in the party’s Statement of Principles in 1980. This thesis concludes that the CDA, throughout its years in government, has been gradually drifting away from these aspects of its Christian democratic identity, because of (1) the CDA’s core principle of solidarity being originally inspired by Catholic social doctrine, (2) the Israel-Palestine conflict having been an internally dividing topic ever since the start of the CDA, and (3) the increasing support of the secular vote having made the party’s successes possible in the first place. This combination of factors has often made room for circumstances in which not always the content of the party’s foundational Statement of Principles was of the utmost priority. Moreover, it has often resulted in a negligence of the protection of those Christian values and traditions in places where Christian solidarity was actually needed the most. While this research gives an interesting insight into the CDA’s developing understanding of solidarity towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, future research on the connection between Christian democratic politics and threatened Christian communities in the rest of the world might be a welcome addition to the discussion.Show less
Political trust is seen as a requirement for democratic regimes to function well. In the Netherlands, polling data indicates that trust is lower in less densely populated provinces, while remaining...Show morePolitical trust is seen as a requirement for democratic regimes to function well. In the Netherlands, polling data indicates that trust is lower in less densely populated provinces, while remaining high nation-wide. This study aims to identify if living in less urbanized - low population density - areas in the Netherlands have lower levels of political trust, and if so look at potential explanations. I investigate the two most specific levels of the framework by Norris (2011, 2017) of political trust: trust in regime institutions as well as trust in incumbent office-holders. All analyses were performed on four waves of data from the DPES (2006 - 2017). After controlling for education, religion, gender and age, urbanization did not improve the prediction of political trust in either level. One remarkable result was that education and age had opposite influences in trust in regime institutions versus trust in incumbent office-holders. These differences demonstrate the value of Norris’ framework: the type of relation between an underlying factor and political trust may depend on the type of political trust considered.Show less
