Political Rights in the Netherlands

26/02/2024

Every citizen has some political rights. We roughly know what they are and that they are
important for the well-being of the population. But how well are they upkept and exercised in
celebrated and successful democracies like the Netherlands? Analyzing the experience of a
long-term democracy might give clues about the importance of political rights, where
improvements should be made, and the necessity of increasing political rights for the success
of other countries around the world.

To look at what political rights exist in the Netherlands; we first need to define what they are.
Based on the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Hemant More identifies the
key elements of what constitutes political rights (More 2023). He defines political rights as
“basic rights which allow an individual to participate directly or indirectly in the political
activities of the state. Political rights include the right to vote, the right to be elected, the right
to take part in public affairs” (ibid.).

More elaborates that political rights constitute voting directly or indirectly, the right to be
elected, and the right to free and periodic elections. In addition, the right to take part in public
affairs includes the freedom of expression and assembly. In addition, proper participation in
public affairs includes adequate access to the information held by public bodies which allows
people to make informed choices, therefore exercising their political rights (More 2023).

The political rights outlined above are important because they allow the people to be
indiscriminately heard and represented in the government. This promotes and maintains
democracy and peace in the country. To look at political rights in the Netherlands, the
“political freedom” data from the Freedom House (FH) will be used. FH is a non-profit
organization that measures the level of democracy, political freedom, and human rights
around the world. I chose to use the political freedom data from the Freedom House because
it is closely linked to the definition outlined by More. The “political freedom” data
operationalizes the definition to be able to measure political rights out of forty points (FH
2023: 1).

To begin with, the Dutch governing body consists of two chambers of the parliament. The
lower is called the House of Representatives and the higher States General. The House of
Representatives is chosen through the general election by the people which uses the
proportional system. After the parliament has been elected, a governing coalition should be
formed with different parties, and the person who will head the government should be chosen
(idem: 2). The Dutch Senate is indirectly elected by 12 provincial council members who are
directly elected. The elected parliament then forms governmental policies (ibid.). By directly
electing the House of Representatives and the provincial councils, the Dutch directly elect
their governing body and indirectly their Senate, effectively exercising their political rights.

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Moreover, The Dutch elections are considered to be free and fair as every governing body is
either directly or indirectly chosen (idem: 3). In addition, elections are periodic, happening
every four years for both chambers of the parliament. For the House of Representatives, there
is no threshold for a minimum vote, usually allowing more than 15 parties to gain seats.
Additionally, the elections are administered by the Election Council, which is considered to
be free and impartial from the government (ibid.).

As for participation in public affairs, political parties operate independently of control or

restrictions on the candidates. Government funding is given to all parties with more than a
thousand members, as well as parties on the municipal and provincial levels (ibid.). The
parties compete freely for their government seats, as the proportional system allows many
new parties to join the government. Typically, that parliament composition changes. For
example, after the 2021 elections, four new parties managed to enter the government. This
shows that parties can compete freely. Voters, including different minorities like the LGBTQ
community, can express their opinions and make their own political choices without pressure,
helping preferred parties to gain seats in the government (ibid.).

Another component of effective participation in public affairs is freedom from corruption and
adequate access to government information. The Netherlands has effective anti-corruption
bodies, and codes of conduct that safeguard the country against corruption (idem: 4). The
country typically has low levels of corruption, being the eighth least corrupt country in the
world! (Transparency International 2023).

Surprisingly, the Netherlands is marked down by one point for the lack of governmental
transparency, depriving the country of the perfect score in political rights (FH 2023: 4). Even
though “The Open Government Act” requires the government to make their documents
public online without request, the majority of governmental agencies fail to do so proactively
and clearly and also miss their deadlines. There has also been a scandal regarding the
childcare allowances. The government accused multiple families of child allowance fraud
based on discriminatory and untransparent algorithms. The government has since promised to
be more transparent, making state inspectors more independent. This lost point for lack of
transparency was also seen in the previous year’s report of 2022 (ibid.). This is particularly
surprising as the Dutch reports from 2017 until 2021 show that the country has had a perfect
score for political rights.

In conclusion, the Netherlands scored a 39/40 result for political rights in 2023, showing a
remarkable result (FH 2023: 1). The Dutch people exercise a considerable number of political
rights including the right to vote, to be elected, free and fair elections, and effective
participation in the public affairs of the country. While governmental transparency should be
improved, the rest of the rights can maybe explain why most Dutch people are satisfied with
their lives (OECD 2024). This means that other countries around the world should aim to
grant more and better-quality political rights to their citizens.

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Bibliography

(FH) Freedom House (2023). “Political Freedom in the Netherlands”. Washington D.C.: FH.

More, H. (2023). “Political Rights”, The Legal Quotient, May 2: 1.

(OECD) Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (2023). “The Better
Living Index, Netherlands”. Paris: OECD.

Transparency International (2023). “Transparency International Netherlands”. Berlin:

Transparency International.