Ideological positions and the referendum in the Netherlands

Abstract

Referendums are promoted for various reasons. Parties support referendums for strategic and institutional reasons and motivations (see Sitter and Rahat, this book, Chapters 5 and 6 respectively), but ideological considerations may also play a role in explaining the support for and the use of referendums. This chapter focuses on the fundamental and ideological viewpoints on direct democracy. It analyses the debate on referendums in the Netherlands. The question is, do ideological positions matter? Do the leftist parties differ from right-wing parties in their outlook towards direct democracy? The chapter starts with an outline of the history and the actual situation of the referendum in the Netherlands. In this section, the focus is on two cases: the failure of the introduction of a binding referendum at the national level and the referendum on the EU constitution in 2005. The chapter then analyses the ongoing referendum debate between the political parties in the Netherlands. Attention is paid to the positions of parties in party manifestos and to the differences in opinions within political parties. It is shown that party ideology is an important factor in explaining the positions in the debate on the referendum. The ideological debate on the referendum is also reflected in the media among opinion makers. An analysis of newspaper articles yields insight into ideological perspectives on direct democracy as well as the main arguments that are used in the debate on referendums.