Een onderzoek naar de afstandsopvattingen en de afstandspercepties van gemeenteraadsleden over de afstand tussen burger en lokale politici en de wijze waarop deze opvattingen en percepties tot...Show moreEen onderzoek naar de afstandsopvattingen en de afstandspercepties van gemeenteraadsleden over de afstand tussen burger en lokale politici en de wijze waarop deze opvattingen en percepties tot stand komen.Show less
This study aim at providing an answer to the core research question “What is the role of Twitter in the conduct of public diplomacy in The Netherlands?” On the basis of qualitative interviews with...Show moreThis study aim at providing an answer to the core research question “What is the role of Twitter in the conduct of public diplomacy in The Netherlands?” On the basis of qualitative interviews with foreign diplomats and experts on public diplomacy in The Netherlands, it was discovered that they use Twitter as a tool for providing the local communities with information about the advocated countries and their foreign policies. The foreign officials also employ Twitter to address certain members of the Dutch general public, attract their attention to specific topics and engage in discussions with them to enhance their perceptions of the represented states. The conducted content analysis of the Tweets posted by diplomats from the Embassy of Ecuador, the Embassy of Poland, the Embassy of Sweden, and the Embassy of the USA to the Netherlands also demonstrated that they post direct Tweets and personal messages concerning important topics to engage with the foreign publics. However, it is also found that only a small number of them use the language of the local community members, namely Dutch, to disseminate information about their foreign policies. Some of the interviewees explained that they translate only content that is relevant to the Dutch audiences in Dutch. Nevertheless, to engage in more debates with the local communities and enhance their understanding and image of the represented countries, it is recommended that foreign diplomats should provide all messages on Twitter in the language of the host state. Thus, they can use it as an effective tool for accomplishing their public diplomacy goals.Show less
The research question of this essay is: What was the attitude of the Dutch government and the Second Chamber towards eight Israeli-Arab conflicts? These conflicts were Israel’s War of Independence...Show moreThe research question of this essay is: What was the attitude of the Dutch government and the Second Chamber towards eight Israeli-Arab conflicts? These conflicts were Israel’s War of Independence from 15 May 1948 to 24 February 1949, the Suez Crisis from 29 October to 16 March 1957, the Six-Day War of June 1967, the Yom Kippur War of October 1973, the Israeli-Lebanese conflict from 6 June 1982 to 17 May 1983, the First Intifada from 9 December 1987 to 13 September 1993, the Second Intifada from 28 September 2000 to August 2005 and the Second Lebanon War from 12 July to 14 August 2006. The attitude and reactions from the Dutch government and political parties in the Second Chamber towards these conflicts are analyzed. More specifically, both the Israeli and Arab perspectives are taken into account. Based on this, conclusions can be drawn if these parties had taken in each conflict a pro-Israel, neutral or pro-Arabic attitude. After these research results, the hypotheses can be answered. In this research the political parties in the Dutch Second Chamber are divided into three important party families, which embody the political continuity in the Dutch politics. These party families, to which almost all political parties in the research can be divided in, are the Christian Democratic, the Social Democratic and the Liberal party families. The three most important political parties in the Netherlands in this research are called the ‘Big Three’, and are each the largest parties of their party families. These parties are the Christian Democratic Party (CDA), which is a fusion of the KVP, ARP and CHU, the Labour Party (PvdA) and the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). The political parties that belong to the Christian Democratic party family besides the CDA and his predecessors KVP, ARP and CHU, were and are the SGP, GPV, ChristenUnie, KNP and the RKPN. The political parties that belong to the Social Democratic party family, besides the PvdA, were and are the CPN, DS’70, SP, PSP, PPR, EVP and GroenLinks. The party that belongs to the Liberal party family besides the conservative-liberal VVD is the social-liberal D66. The other parties in this research that didn’t belong to the three party families were the BP and LPF; they are classified as the Populist parties in this research. According to the research results the Dutch governments had taken more often a pro-Israeli, namely in four conflicts, than a pro-Arab, in two conflicts, or neutral, in two conflicts, attitude. There can be concluded that the Dutch government was in most conflicts in favor of Israel, but not in all conflicts. Therefore the first hypothesis, that the Dutch governments always had taken a pro-Israel attitude regarding all the eight conflicts, is not supported by these research results. The Christian Democratic Party CDA and its predecessors had taken five times a pro-Israeli, two times a neutral and one time a pro-Arab attitude. Therefore the second hypothesis, that the CDA and its three predecessors ARP, CHU and KVP, always had taken a pro-Israel attitude towards all the eight conflicts, is not supported by the research results. Despite the fact that the conservative-liberal VVD had taken most times, in comparison with the two other big parties CDA and PvdA, a pro-Israel attitude, she had not always taken a pro-Israel attitude towards the conflicts. Of the eight conflicts she had taken one time a neutral and one time a pro-Arab attitude. Therefore the third hypothesis, that the VVD always had taken a pro-Israeli attitude towards all the conflicts, is not supported by the research results. The social-liberal D66 only took once, during the Yom Kippur War, a pro-Israel attitude. This party had taken three times a pro-Arab and one time a neutral attitude towards the conflicts. Therefore there 55 can be concluded that the attitude of the conservative-liberal VVD and the social-liberal D66 regarding the conflicts differ a lot. Only during the Lebanon War of 1982 the VVD and D66 together took a pro-Arab attitude. Therefore the fourth hypothesis, that the VVD had taken more times a pro-Israel attitude than D66 towards the eight conflicts, is supported by the research results. The little Christian Democratic parties had never taken a pro-Arab attitude. Only during the Israeli War of Independence, and the GPV during the First Intifada, these parties had taken a neutral attitude. Despite the fact that these parties had taken more times a pro-Israel attitude towards the conflicts than the other parties, the fifth hypotheses; that these parties always had taken a pro-Israel attitude, is not supported by the research results. Within the Social Democrat parties it is most obvious that the PvdA has changed its attitudes towards Israel during the conflicts. While the PvdA took a pro-Israel attitude in three successive conflicts; the Suez, Sixth-Day and the Yom Kippur War, she took a pro-Arab attitude from the First Lebanon War to the Second Lebanon War. Therefor the sixth hypothesis, that the PvdA had changed on a current moment its attitude from pro-Israel to pro-Arabic, is supported by the results of the research. All the Social Democratic parties on the left side of the PvdA had taken the most pro-Arabic attitudes towards the eight conflicts, in comparison to the other political parties in the Second Chamber. Of all the parties on the left side of the PvdA only the PSP had once, during the Six-Day War, taken a pro-Israel attitude. From the First Lebanon War to the Second Lebanon War, these parties had all taken a pro-Arabic attitude towards these conflicts. The CPN had taken a neutral attitude three times and the PPR only took a neutral attitude during the Yom Kippur War. The seventh hypotheses, that the parties on the left side of the PvdA within the Social Democratic party family had always taken a pro-Arab attitude towards the eight conflicts, is not supported by these research results. The Populist BP had taken a neutral attitude one time and a pro-Israel attitude another time. The LPF however, merely took a pro-Israel attitude once.Show less
Personalisering van de media wordt vaak verklaard door de opkomst van de televisie. In een recent onderzoek van Reinemann en Wilke (2007) wordt aangetoond dat in 2002 en 2005 in Duitsland er een...Show morePersonalisering van de media wordt vaak verklaard door de opkomst van de televisie. In een recent onderzoek van Reinemann en Wilke (2007) wordt aangetoond dat in 2002 en 2005 in Duitsland er een sterke toename is van persoonsgerichte verslaglegging in de kranten. Deze toename verklaren zij voor een groot deel door een sterke piek na de kanseliersdebatten. Hier lijkt de televisie directe invloed te hebben op personalisering in de kranten. Deze scriptie toont aan dat dit effect in Nederland niet wordt gevonden in de periode 1971-2012. Hiervoor is een inhoudsanalyse van De Telegraaf gedaan vlak voor en vlak na een televisiedebat. Afgezien van het ontbreken van een korte-termijn effect in de periodes rond de debatten, lijkt er evenmin sprake te zijn van personalisering op lange termijn in de periode 1971-2012. Dit wijkt af van bevindingen uit eerder onderzoek, en maakt duidelijk dat de operationalisering van het concept personalisering bepalend kan zijn voor het wel of niet vinden van een tendens. Wel is er een duidelijke toename van het aantal afbeeldingen van politici te vinden, hetgeen in overeenstemming is met de personaliseringsthese.Show less
In aanloop naar de verkiezingen van 2014 voor het Europees Parlement heeft de PVV aangegeven plaats te willen nemen in een eurosceptische fractie. De partijen die zich bij deze fractie zullen gaan...Show moreIn aanloop naar de verkiezingen van 2014 voor het Europees Parlement heeft de PVV aangegeven plaats te willen nemen in een eurosceptische fractie. De partijen die zich bij deze fractie zullen gaan aansluiten zijn met name partijen die in het verleden, of nog steeds, extreemrechtse standpunten uiten. Dit was tijdens de Europese Parlementsverkiezingen in 2009 voor de PVV een reden om niet met hen te gaan samenwerken. In deze studie is onderzocht of de PVV zich tijdens de campagneperiode voor de Europese Parlementsverkiezingen van 2014 zich meer rechtsextremistisch uit dan in diezelfde periode in 2009. Hieruit blijkt dat de PVV de meeste rechtsextremistische gedachten (nationalisme, etnocentrisme, racisme, xenofobie, autoritarisme en antidemocratische houding) heeft versterkt of uitgebreid.Show less
