A Country of Minorities

Abstract

The Netherlands is a country of minorities. This is without doubt the single most important characteristic of Dutch politics. From the introduction of universal suffrage to the present, no political party has ever succeeded in winning an electoral (or even a parliamentary) majority, and it is unlikely that we shall witness such a majority in the near future. In the 1989 Parliamentary elections the biggest party obtained only 35.3 per cent of the vote (a record nevertheless), and was still 22 (out of 150) seats short of an overall majority in the Second Chamber of Parliament.