Executive Politics in the Netherlands

Abstract

This chapter sets out the key components of the institutional landscape of the Dutch executive. The core executive approach reveals not only the different institutions in the executive, but also who is dependent on whom in the centre of government. After describing traditions and institutions, five types of executive politics are explored: budgetary politics, turf politics, silo politics, court politics, and accountability politics. For each of these types, the key topics and contributions are identified. The key topics include the increased standing of the prime minister, the relationships between policymaking and public service delivery, as well as the everyday encounters of blame games in a transparent executive. Together, they inform the authors’ suggestions for new directions in executive studies in the Netherlands: (1) interpretive political science and an ethnography of the executive, (2) scholarly attention to knavery as wilful elite behaviour, and (3) emphasizing research on budgetary politics and prioritizing the practices of the Ministry of Finance.