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Understanding the Dutch “No”: The Euro, the East, and the Elite

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2006

Kees Aarts
Affiliation:
University of Twente
Henk van der Kolk
Affiliation:
University of Twente

Extract

The Dutch have been counted among the staunchest supporters of European integration ever since the parliamentary ratification of the European Community for Coal and Steel in late 1951. The major political parties—the Christian Democrats (CDA) and its forerunners, the Labor Party (PvdA), and the liberal parties VVD and D66—supported all important European treaties of the past decades. Only the smaller orthodox-Calvinist parties, some smaller left-wing parties, and, more recently, the List Pim Fortuyn (LPF) have opposed these treaties in parliament. This overwhelmingly large support in the Second Chamber of the Dutch parliament included the Treaty of Rome of 2004—the treaty establishing a constitution for Europe. One hundred twenty-eight out of 150 members of parliament favored the ratification of the European Constitution. This article draws on several chapters in Aarts and van der Kolk 2005.

Type
SYMPOSIUM
Copyright
© 2006 The American Political Science Association

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References

Aarts, Kees, and Henk van der Kolk, eds. 2005. Nederlanders en Europa: Het referendum over de Europese grondwet. Amsterdam: Bert Bakker.Google Scholar
Reif, Karlheinz, and Hermann Schmitt. 1980. “Nine Second-order National Elections: A Conceptual Framework for the Analysis of European Election Results.” European Journal of Political Research 8: 344.Google Scholar
van der Eijk, Cees, Mark N. Franklin et al. 1996. Choosing Europe? The European Electorate and National Politics in the Face of Union. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar