Dutch elections syllabus – With a focus on Race, Secularism and the Nation
On 15 March 2017 the national elections in the Netherlands are held. Important elections as they may set the stage for other European elections in France and Germany later this year. At the moment it is hard to predict the outcome because of “the volatility of Dutch elections, but a fragmented parliament and a complicated coalition formation process are likely“.
I have assembled a mock course syllabus that explores the deep currents of Dutch political culture with a specific focus on Race, Secularism and the Nation which coincides with my current research on the racialization of Dutch Muslims and how Muslims ‘talk back’. It does certainly not only focus on the role of radical right such as Wilders but also to how mainstream political parties cultivate and express their viewpoint of ‘Act normal or get out‘.
The readings introduce observers to the past and present conditions that structure people’s electoral choices and emphasizes the concern among political parties and voters about Dutch identity: whether it is perceived to be threatened by immigration and terrorism or by intolerant right wing radicalism. The weekly readings are organized by separating the different layers in these debates and accompanied by additional primary sources such as newspaper articles and TV reports. It should be treated as a flexible syllabus with recommended reading (the books may be used in whole or in part but I suggest always read the introduction). The last session, number 12, will be decided upon after the elections.
For people who read Dutch, Stukroodvlees is the recommended blog!
1. Introduction: Pillarization, trust and Democracy
Maussen, M. (2016). Pillarization. In J. Stone, R. M. Dennis, P. S. Rizova, A. D. Smith, & X. Hou (Eds.), The Wiley Blackwell encyclopedia of race, ethnicity and nationalism. (Wiley Blackwell encyclopedias in social sciences). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. DOI: 10.1002/9781118663202.wberen564
Mair, Peter (2013) Ruling the Void: The Hollowing of Western Democracy. Verso: London and New York
Van Erkel, P. F.A. and T. Van der Meer, T. W.G. (2016), Macroeconomic performance, political trust and the Great Recession: A multilevel analysis of the effects of within-country fluctuations in macroeconomic performance on political trust in 15 EU countries, 1999–2011. European Journal of Political Research, 55: 177–197
Primary source: The multicultural drama (Het multiculturele drama) – Paul Scheffer (NRC 2000).
2. The myth of Dutch multiculturalism
Ghorashi, H. (2003), ‘Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Daring or Dogmatic. Debates on Multiculturalism and Emancipation in the Netherlands’, Focaal 42: 163-169
Lentin, A and G. Titley (2011) The Crisis of Multiculturalism: Racism in a Neoliberal Age. Zed Books
Prins, B. (2002) ‘The nerve to break taboos. New realism in the Dutch discourse on multiculturalism’, Journal of International Migration and Integration, 3 (3): 363-379
Vink, M. (2007) Dutch multiculturalism: Beyond the pillarisation Myth. Political Studies Review 5(3): 337–350
Yanow, D. en M. van der Haar (2013). ‘People out of place: Allochthony and autochthony in Netherlands identity discourse – metaphors and categories in action.’ Journal for International Relations and Development 16 (2): 227-261
3. The Security state
Githens-Mazer, J. and Lambert, R. (2010), Why conventional wisdom on radicalization fails: the persistence of a failed discourse. International Affairs, 86: 889–901.
Gowricharn, R.S. & S. Çankaya (2015) Policing the Nation: Assimilation and street-level bureaucracies in professional life. Sociology 1-17
Günay, Cengiz and Nina Witjes (2017) Border Politics: Defining Spaces of Governance and Forms of Transgressions. Berlin: Srpinger
Jackson R. (2005) Writing the war on terrorism: language, politics and counter-terrorism. Manchester: University of Manchester Press.
Ragazzi, F. (2016) Suspect community or suspect category? The impact of counter-terrorism as ‘policed multiculturalism’ Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 42 (5): 724-741
De Koning, M. (2013) “Between the Prophet and Paradise: The Salafi struggle in the Netherlands” Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies / Revue canadienne d’études néerlandaises(CJNS/RCÉN) Volume 33, Issue 2 (2012) – Volume 34, Issue 1 (2013) – Special issue – Islam in the Netherlands: Entering the twenty-first century – Guest editor: Maurits S. Berger, pp. 17-34
Primary source: Dutch Islamic groups resist becoming informers in surveillance drive – Middle East Eye
4. Dutch Whiteness: Authochtony, Populism and Neo-liberalism
Demmers, J. en S. Mehendale (2010) ‘Neoliberal xenophobia: The Dutch case.’ Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 35(1): 53-71
Geschiere, P. (2009) The Perils of Belonging: Autochthony, Citizenship, and Exclusion in Africa and Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Mudde, Cas and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser (2017) Populism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. See also: Five book on populism – choice by Cas Mudde
Veer, P. van der (2006) ‘Pim Fortuyn, Theo van Gogh, and the Politics of Tolerance in the Netherlands.’ Public Culture 18(1):111-124
Wekker, G. (2016) White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race. Duke University Press
Primary source: Is far-right populism winning in the Netherlands? – Simon Kuper / FT
Splintering of Dutch politics make elections hard to predict – FT
5. Migration, refugees and policies
De Haas, H., S. Castles and M. J. Miller (2014). The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World. fifth ed. Palgrave: London
Lucassen L. (2014), To Amsterdam: migrations past and present’. In: Foner, N, J. Rath, J.W. Duyvendak, R. van Reekum (Eds.) New York and Amsterdam: Immigration and the New Urban Landscape. New York: New York University Press. 52-81.
Scholten, P. (2011) Framing Immigrant Integration: Dutch Research-Policy Dialogues in Comparative Perspective, Amsterdam: aup.
Schrover, M., J.P. van der Leun, L. Lucassen and G.C. Quispel (2008), Illegal migration and gender in a global and historical perspective. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
6. Islam and secularism
Bracke, S. (2013) ‘Transformations of the Secular and “The Muslim Question”. Revisiting the Historical Coincidence of Depillarisation and the Institutionalisation of Islam in The Netherlands.’ Journal of Muslims in Europe, 2(2): 208-226
Buijs FJ (2009) Muslims in the Netherlands: Social and political developments after 9/11. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 35(3): 421–38
Maliepaard, M., M. Gijsberts, and M. Lubbers (2012) “Reaching the Limits of Secularization? Turkish- and Moroccan-Dutch Muslims in the Netherlands 1998–2006.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 51(2):359-367
Maussen, M. (2012) “Pillarization and Islam: Church-state traditions and Muslim claims for recognition in the Netherlands” Comparative European Politics , Vol. 10(3), pp.337-353
De Koning M(2010) Understanding Dutch Islam: Exploring the relationship of Muslims with the state and public sphere in the Netherlands. In: Moghissi H, Ghorashi H (eds) Muslim diaspora in the West: Negotiating Gender, Home and Belonging. Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 181–96
Tamimi Arab, P. (2017). Amplifying Islam in the European Soundscape – Religious pluralism and secularism in the Netherlands. London: Bloomsbury Academics.
Statham P, Koopmans R, Giugni M, Passy F (2005) Resilient or adaptable Islam? Multiculturalism, religion and migrants’ claims-making for group demands in Britain, the Netherlands and France. Ethnicities 5(4): 427–59
Primary source:
7. Race, secularism and nationalism
Bowen, C. Bertossi, J.W. Duyvendak, M.L. Krook (2013) European States and Their Muslim Citizens: The Impact of Institutions on Perceptions and Boundaries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Duyvendak, J.W., P. Geschiere & E. Tonkens (eds.) (2016). The Culturalization of Citizenship. Belonging and Polarization in a Globalizing World. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK
Essed, P en I. Hoving (2014) Dutch Racism. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi
Essed, P. en S. Trienekens (2008) ‘“Who Wants to Feel White?” Race, Dutch Culture, and Contested Identities.’ Ethnic and Racial Studies 31(1): 52-72;
Van Es, M.A. (2016). Stereotypes and Self-Representations of Women with a Muslim Background: The Stigma of Being Oppressed. (312 p.). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hall, S (1980) “Race, Articulation and Societies Structured in Dominance,” in Sociological Theories: Race and Colonialism (Unesco)
Moors, A. (2009). The Dutch and the face veil: the politics of discomfort. Social Anthropology 17(4):393-408
Weiner, Melissa F. (2014) ‘The Ideologically Colonized Metropole: Dutch Racism and Racist Denial.’ Sociology Compass 8(6): 731-744.
Van der Valk, I (2015 ) Dutch Islamophobia. Amsterdam: AUP
Primary source:
8. Sexuality, Race and the nation
Hekma, G and J.W. Duyvendak (2011) Queer Netherlands: A puzzling example Sexualities 14(6): 625-631
Mepschen, P., J.W. Duyvendak and E.H. Tonkens ‘Sexual Politics, Orientalism and Multicultural Citizenship in the Netherlands.’ Sociology, 44, no. 5: 962-979
El-Tayeb, F. 2012. “‘Gays Who Cannot Properly be Gay’: Queer Muslims in the Neoliberal European City.” European Journal of Women’s Studies 19 (1): 79-95.
Mepschen, P. (2016) Sexual democracy, cultural alterity and the politics of everyday life in Amsterdam. Patterns of prejudice 50 (2). (May 2016)
Primary source: In response to Trump – A Dutch minister launches ‘She Decides’ – NYT
9. Electoral Choices I: Fundamental changes
Van der Meer, Tom, Rozemarijn Lubbe, Erika van Elsas, Martin Elff & Wouter van der Brug, (2012) ‘Bounded volatility in the Dutch electoral battlefield: A panel study on changing vote intentions in a changing party system, the Netherlands 2006-2010’, Acta Politica 4: 333-355.
Van der Meer, T. W. G., van Elsas, E., Lubbe, R., & van der Brug, W. (2015). Are volatile voters erratic, whimsical, or seriously picky? A panel study of 58 waves into the nature of electoral volatility (the Netherlands 2006-2010). Party Politics, 21(1), 100-114
Pellikaan, H., T. Van Der Meer and S. De Lange (2003) ‘The Road from a Depoliticized to a Centrifugal Democracy’, Acta Politica, vol. 38, no. 1: 23–50
Pellikaan, H., S. Lange. And T. van der Meer (2007) Fortuyn’s Legacy: Party System Change in the Netherlands Comparative European Politics 5, no 3: 282-302
Pellikaan, H., S.L. de Lange and T.W.G . van der Meer (2016) The Centre Does Not Hold: Coalition Politics and Party System Change in the Netherlands, 2002-12. Government and Opposition, 1-25
Primary source:
10. Electoral choices II: Authoritarianism and the anti-migrant vote
Abou-Chadi, T. (2016) ‘Niche Party Success and Mainstream Party Policy Shifts – How Green and Radical Right Parties Differ in Their Impact’, British Journal of Political Science, 46(2), pp. 417–436.
Meijers, M., and Rauh, C. (2016). Has Eurosceptic mobilization become more contagious? Comparing the 2009 and 2014 EP Election campaigns in The Netherlands and France. Politics and Governance, 4(1): 83-103
Lefkofridi, Zoe, Markus Wagner, and Johanna E. Willmann. (2014). Left-Authoritarians and Policy Representation in Western Europe: Electoral Choice Across Ideological Dimensions. WestEuropean Politics 37:1–26
Van Spanje, J. & W. van der Brug (2009), ‘The exclusion of Western European anti-immigration parties and its consequences for party choice’, Acta Politica 44(4):353-384
Spanje, J. van (2010). Contagious parties. Anti-immigration parties and their impact on other parties’ immigration stances in contemporary Western Europe. Party Politics, 16(5), 563-586
Primary source:
11. Electoral choices III: the predicaments of Dutch identity
Aarts, K. and J. Thomassen (2008) ‘Dutch Voters and the Changing Party Space 1989–2006’, Acta Politica, vol.43, pp. 203–34
Irwin, G.A. en J.J.M. van Holsteyn (1997) ‘Where to go from here? Revamping electoral politics in the Netherlands.’ West European Politics, 20 (2):93-118
Mudde, C. (2010) ‘The Populist Radical Right: A Pathological Normalcy’, West European Politics, 33: 6,. 1167 — 1186
Van der Brug, W. & J. van Spanje (2009), ‘Immigration, Europe and the ‘New’ Cultural Cleavage’, European Journal of Political Research 48: 309-334.
De Koster, W., P. Achterberg, J. Van der Waal, S. Van Bohemen, R. Kemmers. (2014) Progressiveness and the New Right: The Electoral Relevance of Culturally Progressive Values in the Netherlands. West European Politics 37(3):584-604.
Tebble, A.J. (2006) ‘Exclusion for Democracy’ Political Theory 34 (4): 463-487
Primary source:
12. Wrapping it up
To be decided.