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The Netherlands

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The Palgrave Handbook of Radical Left Parties in Europe

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Abstract

This chapter describes the history of the successful Socialist Party (SP) in the Netherlands. The SP was founded in 1971 as a Maoist party but gradually distanced itself from Maoism, then Leninism and finally Marxism, transforming itself into a slightly radical Social Democratic party with a left populist style and (to some extent) discourse. Its organisation changed accordingly, from a Leninist vanguard party into a more open mass party, but compared with other Dutch parties, the SP remained substantially more centralistic and hierarchical. Electorally, the party has been successful during the 1990s and early 2000s, but since 2006 its development stagnated, culminating in a low point at the provincial and European elections in 2019. Up till now, the SP has not achieved its goal of government participation.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Gerrit Voerman

Authors
  1. Gerrit Voerman
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Correspondence to Gerrit Voerman .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Sciences Po Grenoble, Saint Martin d’Hères, France

    Fabien Escalona

  2. Department of Politics, University of York, York, UK

    Daniel Keith

  3. Politics and International Relations, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Luke March

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Voerman, G. (2023). The Netherlands. In: Escalona, F., Keith, D., March, L. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Radical Left Parties in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56264-7_14

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