The Dutch political system does little to concentrate political power in the hands of a democratically legitimated majority (for an overview, see Andeweg and Irwin 2005). Lijphart (1999), for example, uses ten institutional criteria to classify political systems as more majoritarian democracies or more consensus-oriented democracies on two dimensions, and on both dimensions the Netherlands is close to the consensus end of the scale. With regard to the executives–parties dimension, the Dutch political system is characterized by a high number of relevant political parties, most of which originated in one of the social segments, known as ‘pillars’, that were divided by deep social cleavages of class and religion. Hence, these parties can be classified into three different political ‘families’. Within each of these families the main party (the Labour Party (PvdA) for the socialist left, the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) for the Christian democrats, and the conservative Liberals (VVD) for the liberals) face competition from smaller ideologically more radical or populist parties. None of these parties is close to obtaining a parliamentary majority, and the country is always governed by coalitions and relatively often by ‘oversized’coalitions that include more parties than numerically necessary to obtain a parliamentary majority.

Although there are elements of separation of powers in the Dutch system (government ministers are not allowed to be members of parliament, for example), the government is dependent on the confidence of a parliamentary majority in order to survive. Several mechanisms (a detailed coalition programme, an elaborate system of consultation and coordination among the governing parties, and party discipline) result in a high degree of governmental stability. Still, opposition parties are not entirely without influence, especially through relatively powerful and specialized parliamentary committees. There is a tradition of consulting interest groups and preferably incorporating them into policy-making through formal and informal corporatist arrangements.