Tilburg University Political Discontent in the Netherlands in the First

Tilburg University Political discontent in the Netherlands in the first decade of the 21th century Brons, C.R. Publication date: 2014 Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in Tilburg University Research Portal Citation for published version (APA): Brons, C. R. (2014). Political discontent in the Netherlands in the first decade of the 21th century. [s.n.]. 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Download date: 24. sep. 2021 Political discontent Political in the Netherlands first decade of 21th century Political discontent LL B M R in the Netherlands in the first decade of the 21th century G Political discontent in the Netherlands in the first decade of the 21th century This book introduces a refreshing perspective on the popular idea that citizens’ political discontent is on the rise. Citizens’ perspectives on politics are studied thoroughly through survey studies and in-depth interviews. Results reveal that there is no sudden crisis of politics or democracy, but a persistent image problem of a privileged political class, resulting in an urgent call for political virtue and moral leadership. The research also examines the strong rise of L L B M R attention for the issue of political discontent in G newspapers articles and parliamentary documents. Surprisingly, newspapers and parliament prove to have a perspective on current political discontent in the Netherlands that is very different from that of politically dissatisfied citizens. !! ! !!! Claartje Brons Claartje Brons Amsterdam University Press POLITICAL DISCONTENT Cover design: Anna Brons Cover illustration: Anna Brons Lay-out: V3-Services, Baarn © Clara Reina Brons 2014 ISBN 978 90 8555 092 1 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be re- produced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Political discontent in the Netherlands in the first decade of the 21st century proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan Tilburg University op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof.dr. Ph. Eijlander, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties aangewezen commissie in de aula van de Universiteit op 10 oktober om 10:15 uur door Clara Reina Brons geboren op 28 oktober 1980 te Amsterdam Promotores: Prof.dr. G.J.M. van den Brink Prof.dr. F. Hendriks Overige leden van de promotiecommissie: Prof.dr. M. Boogers Prof.dr. P. Dekker Prof.dr. M. Elchardus Table of Contents List of tables 8 List of figures 9 Acknowledgements 11 Preface 15 1 Political discontent in the exemplary case of the Netherlands 19 Political discontent in the Netherlands 20 Research approach 23 On the research choices made 27 Structure of this thesis 27 2 On Political Support and Political Discontent: Concepts, Trends and Theories 31 On political discontent and political support: concepts and meaning 31 Theoretical models for analysing political support 34 Trends and theories 46 Specified research questions 54 3 Mapping (the Survey Statistics) of Political Discontent in the Netherlands 57 Growing discontent with current government (policy) and incumbent officeholders? 59 6 Table of contents Growing discontent with political institutions and politicians in general? 65 Growing discontent with democratic principles and values? 71 Comparing types and levels of political discontent in survey studies 74 4 In conversation with politically dissatisfied citizens 79 Assessment of Politics: Objects of Discontent in Detail 85 Intensity and deepseatedness of the cynicism 93 What Influences the Intensity of Political Cynicism? 97 Summary, Review and Discussion 99 5 Political Discontent and Political Behaviour in the Netherlands 107 Exit or voice 107 Political discontent and political behaviour in Dutch Parliamentary Election Studies 2010 109 The political behaviour of political cynics through interviews 129 Comparing Results 135 6 Understanding the Public Attention for Political Discontent 139 Data and methods 140 Newspaper attention for political discontent from 1970-2010 143 Interim conclusions and reflections on the growing attention for political discontent in newspapers 158 Parliamentary discussions on political discontent since 1995 160 Interim conclusions and reflections on the growing attention for political discontent in parliament 166 Concluding reflections on the growing newspaper and parliamentary attention for political discontent 167 Explaining the growth of attention 169 7 Summary, Closing Reflections and Policy Implications 173 Summary 173 Closing reflections 183 Comparing 7 Appendices 193 Appendix A 195 Appendix B 197 Appendix C 199 Appendix D 203 Appendix E 213 Appendix F 217 Bibliography 227 Politieke onvrede in Nederland in het eerste decennium van de 21ste eeuw (samenvatting in het Nederlands) 241 Index 249 List of tables Table 1 Overview of research questions, data sources and methods used 26 Table 2 Levels of political support 36 Table 3 Theoretical model 37 Table 4 Survey items used 60 Table 5 The relation between satisfaction with the government and political behaviour 113 Table 6 Classification table of general satisfaction with the government 115 Table 7 Political cynicism and related political behaviour 118 Table 8 Classification table of political cynicism 120 Table 9 The relation between belief in democracy as best form of government and political behaviour 122 Table 10 Classification table of the assessment of democracy as best form of government 125 Table 11 Comparative regression analyses of the assessment of politics on three different levels and related political behaviour 128 Table 12 Data used for analysing political discontent in newspapers and parliament 141 Table 13 Research results 182 Table 14 Dutch political parties in parliament between 2006-2010 195 Table 15 Correlations between the dependent and independent variables used in the analysis 223 List of figures Figure 1 Support for government and Prime Minister 62 Figure 2 General support for political institutions 66 Figure 3 Support for political institutions and politicians in general 67 Figure 4 Support for politicians in general 69 Figure 5 Most important motives for politicians 70 Figure 6 Support for the political system 71 Figure 7 Support for democracy 72 Figure 8 Support for democratic freedoms 73 Figure 9 The government is in touch with the people 81 Figure 10 Politicians understand the problems citizens face 81 Figure 11 Members of Parliament (MP’s) don’t care about the opinion of people like me 82 Figure 12 Political parties are interested only in my vote and not in my opinion 82 Figure 13 Attention paid to political discontent in headlines of news articles 156 Figure 14 Attention paid to political discontent in headlines and text of news articles 157 Figure 15 Number of news articles on ‘gap between citizens and politics’ 157 Figure 16 Model of rising attention for political discontent 169 Acknowledgements This research journey has brought me many new and unexpected insights and abilities and I would like to thank everyone who inspired me: my teachers, family, friends, colleagues and the people I interviewed during this research. When I told people about this research project, and especially about my conversations with politically cynical citizens, I typically got two responses. The first one was: ‘Why don’t you come and talk to me?’ The second one was: ‘It must have made you terribly unhappy, talking to all those cynics!’ The beautiful, unexpected thing is that the interviews in particular brought me many new insights, as you will read in the following. The interviews were fun because they were interesting personal conversations, with recognisable stories and frustrations. They were also valuable because they put a fresh perspective on the much discussed and studied topic of waning political trust. I would like to thank all the interviewees who wel- comed me into their homes. You have told me so openly about your expectations and frustrations in politics. I hope you recognise your stories. I would like to thank my supervisor Gabriël van den Brink and my co-supervisor Frank Hendriks for their inspiring guidance throughout this research project. Gabriël, you have always reminded me to keep my eyes on the grand story of this research, always tempting me to search for new perspectives and new knowledge, feeding me with ideas and advice, while leaving me free to explore on my own. Frank, you have invited me to the yearly work sessions with your own PhD stu- dents, from which I benefited greatly. I thank you for your inspiring thoughts and concern over the years. Your close reading of my work at so many stages has been of great value. I also want to thank other colleagues at Tilburg University who thought along and commented on my research design and findings: Linze Schaap, Marcel Boogers, Niels Karsten, Casper Geurtz, Eva Wisse, Ted van de Wijdeven, Julien van Ostaaijen, Meike Bokhorst and Elvira van Vliet, thanks! A special thanks to Wahideh Achbari, for reviewing my statistical work on the relation between political discontent and political behaviour.

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