1st Edition

A Tiny Spot on the Earth The Political Culture of the Netherlands in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

By Piet de Rooy Copyright 2015
406 Pages
by Routledge

406 Pages
by Routledge

406 Pages
by Routledge

In this survey of the Dutch political culture of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Piet de Rooy reveals that the 'polder model' often used to describe economic and social policymaking based on consensus is a myth. Instead, modern political culture in the Dutch Low Countries began with a revolution and is rife with rivalries among political and ideological factions. De Rooy argues that... Read more
Introduction, Chapter 1: The first Constitution, 1798, Chapter 2: The structuring of a Nation-State, 1813, Chapter 3: The rise of a parliamentary democracy, 1848, Chapter 4. The construction of the first political party, 1879, Chapter 5: Socialism and Feminism around 1900: the complexities of ideology, Chapter 6: The functioning of a pillarized-corporative system, 1930, Chapter 7: The cultural revolution of the sixties, Chapter 8: Losing a balance: populism, 2002, Epilogue

Biography

Piet de Rooy (1944) is professor emeritus of modern dutch history at the University of Amsterdam. Rob de Wijk is the Director of the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS) and Professor of International Relations and Security at the Campus the Hague of Leiden University. He was previously a Professor in the field of International Relations at the Royal Netherlands Military Academy and Head of the Defense Concepts Department at the Dutch Ministry of Defense.

Anyone with an interest in Dutch political history will enjoy this book. It does not only offer a novel take, but it is also engagingly written, filled with interesting anecdotes and vivid descriptions. As such, the book is much more accessible than many academic texts that sometimes lose their punch in the weeds of academic jargon, theorization, and methodological reflections.,- Edward Anthony Koning, Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies, Vol. 42, Iss. 3