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The party politicization of administrative elites in the Netherlands

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Abstract

This paper explores four potential motivations for the party politicization of the senior civil service: ideological agreement, coalition governance, party family issue priorities, and consociational representation. Using data on the party affiliation of 134 secretaries-general (SGs) serving in the Dutch ministerial bureaucracy between 1945 and 2013, it examines the partisan logic of appointment patterns among senior civil servants in the Netherlands. Overall levels of politicization are very high (almost 70 percent of all SGs have a discernible party affiliation), with a strong increase between 1970 and 1990 and a slight drop-off during the past decades. The appointment patterns suggest that the main drivers behind the party politicization of the Dutch elite bureaucracy are the demand for ideological agreement and a consociational quest for the representation of the ‘pillar parties’ in the senior civil service.

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Figure 1

Note: Line represents share of SGs with discernible party affiliation on December 31 of each year. N varies between 10 and 14

Figure 2

Note: CDA figure includes predecessor parties (KVP, ARP, and CHU)

Figure 3

Note: Only ministerial parties with at least five SG appointments shown; total number of SG appointments for each ministerial party in parentheses

Figure 4

Note: AGR agriculture, CUL culture, DEF defense, ECO economic affairs, EDU education, FIN finance, FOR foreign affairs, GEN general affairs, HEA health, HOU housing, INT interior, JUS justice, SOC social affairs, TRA transport

Figure 5

Note: Averages of seat shares calculated across all elections to the Tweede Kamer for each period. Dotted gray lines indicate perfect proportionality; thick gray lines represent regression slopes. Note that the CDA’s predecessor parties are still included in the middle graph, thus reducing the average CDA seat share for this period. Period 2 starts with the Zijlstra cabinet in November 1966, and period 3 starts with the Kok I cabinet in August 1994

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Acknowledgments

Research for this paper was conducted as part of the project ‘Party Government, Patronage, and the Regulatory State,’ funded by the Austrian Science Fund (Grant no. J 3409-G11).

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Ennser-Jedenastik, L. The party politicization of administrative elites in the Netherlands. Acta Polit 51, 451–471 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41269-016-0005-1

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