Research master thesis | Political Science and Public Administration (research) (MSc)
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In the literature it is argued that the relationship between parliament and government has changed due to increased polarization and party competition. In the Netherlands this change occurred from...Show moreIn the literature it is argued that the relationship between parliament and government has changed due to increased polarization and party competition. In the Netherlands this change occurred from the mid-1960s onwards (Bovend’Eert and Kummeling, 2010; Andeweg, 1995). Party lines have become the main lines of political conflict, thus making the main form of executive-legislative interaction along party lines. According to scholars, commentators and the parliament itself, this has led to changed patterns of legislative oversight. This paper has two explicit goals: it offers a behavioral operationalization of King’s (1976) executive-legislative (party) modes and tests the hypothesis that executive-legislative relations have changed in the Netherlands. Contrary to the expectations, based on quantitative analysis of written questions in the period 1960-2011, no support is found for the hypothesis that the interparty modes have increased in this period in the Netherlands.Show less
