In the Netherlands, like most countries in the West, we have a democracy as a form of government. This can be loosely translated as “people’s rule”. If we only look at the Netherlands, is this really a democracy?
Direct democracy and representative democracy
The most original form of democracy is direct democracy. When a law is drawn up, everyone can participate equally in decision-making. Consider a binding referendum or a popular assembly, which was used by the Greeks, for example. However, a plebiscite actually belongs to a representative democracy, because it has a non-binding character. This form of democracy is also called a parliamentary democracy. Due to the increase in the population, it proved impossible to maintain the direct form of democracy, in which everyone could directly participate in decision-making on a subject, and the result was the emergence of a representative democracy. This parliamentary democracy is still the form of democracy we deal with in the Netherlands and in most Western countries around us.
In the Netherlands we basically have elections every four years. The population then elects a representative from a political party, who should then represent them for a period of four years. The representatives should accommodate the interests of the voters as much as possible, although this is of course not always possible. After all, in the Netherlands we are dealing with a multi-party system. When representatives of different political parties have received enough votes to form a coalition, they must work together. The past has shown that this always proves to be difficult. Simply because the different political parties are often not on the same page on various important issues . This was an important reason that cooperation within the coalition did not always last four years.
A multi-party system
Is a multi-party system still sustainable? Of course, within a democracy it can never be the case that there is only one party to vote for. This is because within a one-party system no guarantee can be given to the population that this one party can actually adequately represent everyone. This is therefore not desirable within a democracy. This is the case with a multi-party system, but is this really the case? Before the elections, the various political leaders do their best to get as many votes as possible. All kinds of promises are presented to voters. When the elections have taken place and the representatives of the various political parties have to form a coalition, this is not always easy. Concessions have to be made in order to achieve cooperation at all. The result of this is that the political parties have to drop many of the promises made to the voter. This is therefore the (negative) consequence of a multi-party system.
Of course, a multi-party system is not the ideal system , but we live in a democracy and that is where this system appears to work best. If there were only one party to vote for, it could no longer be called a democracy.
Democracy in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands, everyone aged 18 and over has the right to elect their representative, who in turn represents a political party, in principle once every four years. People vote for this person/party because it is assumed that this person can meet the voter’s needs as much as possible. In practice, for the reasons stated earlier, it appears to be very difficult and practically impossible to keep the promises made. Can we still speak of a democracy in the Netherlands? When we look at what a democracy must theoretically meet, the answer is yes. After all, we live in a free society, there are free elections in the Netherlands, with several political parties, where everyone aged 18 and older can vote.
However, when we look at how democracy works in practice with regard to politics, one can make comments. Many important decisions taken in the past were not always in line with what citizens had in mind. Consider, for example, the decisions taken regarding the EU.
Democracy yes or no?
In a democracy, people have a say in political decision-making, but the question arises as to how far this participation goes. When we look at what the voter has been promised and what kind of policy is being pursued and what decisions have been and are still being made, this does not always appear to be in accordance with each other. The Netherlands is certainly a democracy, but it is a fact that the participation of Dutch citizens in the daily management of our country is limited.