| Abstrakt: |
The article focuses on the changing perspectives of theoretical explanations of democratisation in the Netherlands. Democracy is conventionally defined as an institutional arrangement that gives ordinary citizens a formal and regular voice in public affairs. Democratisation, then, means the construction of formal mechanisms for popular consultation, that is, parliamentary bodies, political rights and electoral institutions. Contemporary democracy began in the Netherlands in 1919. A wide range of factors related to the rise of democratic institutions has been discerned in international comparative studies like socio-economic development, class conflict, sub cultural splits and elite accommodation, or political culture in general. In this article it is argued that all these, and probably some other factors as well, contributed to the emergence of democratic politics. The socio-economic development approach seems to be somewhat inconclusive, with respect to the Dutch case. The rise of democracy, especially if it was to endure, was generally connected with economic growth, social pluralism and the dispersion of economic resources. |
