Conservatism in the Netherlands

Abstract

The words ‘conservatism’ and ‘conservative’ are not very popular in the Netherlands. In this century not a single political party has expressly called itself or its programme conservative. In contrast to Britain, for example, this term is evidently not regarded as simply an indication of a particular current in politics, but is in itself considered a priori dishonourable or objectionable. When it is reported that such a leading Dutch party politician as the Catholic Nolens declared in the Second Chamber of parliament in 1918 that people would rather be accused of arson or theft than of conservatism, then there is clearly more to this than meets the eye.1 No politician, party, newspaper or broadcasting company presents itself as ‘conservative’.KeywordsLiberal StateRegent ClassConservative PoliticsConservative PartyInterwar PeriodThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.