J. Loots, Voor het volk, van het volk. Van districtenstelsel naar evenredige vertegenwoordiging

Abstract

Invoering van evenredig vertegenwoordiging had centralisering van partijen tot gevolg, kiesverenigingen nu definitief onder landelijke koepel verenigd. Daarnaast ook centralisering van de kandidaatstelling.(196) Parliament defended and represented the 'public interest' of the entire people of the Netherlands, as opposed to sectional interests.(13) Loots has studies the debate about the introduction of proportional representation and sees it as an investigation of the rise of a new political culture in which political representatives were allowed to align themselves with a political party and were allowed to create close ties with the electorate.(13) 'Proportional representation forced the emergence of national politics': parties organised on a national scale and the selection of candidates being centrally coordinated.(14) In the 1920s the representativeness of Parliament was judged based upon the distribution of seats among the various ideologies (i.e.: parties). Nowadays, representativeness is based upon the representation of social categories such as gender, religion, etnicity, profession and region. (15) Loots gives the example of Groeneweg: only one woman in Parliament, but nobody bothered.(15) In the 1960s, this changed and the 'social' interpretation of political representation won ground. Refers to Manin who distinguishes between 'parliamentarism' with independent representatives and 'party democracy' which eemerged in the late 19th century.(16) Dutch liberal representatives followed the line of Burke who said that in Parliament 'not local purposes, not local prejudices ought to guide, but the general good'.(21) Parliament did not 'act for' the people', but 'stood for' the people.(21) For every 45.000 inhabitants, one representative.(23), but abolished in 1887. Tension between wish to abolish provincial sentiments/parochialism in the Netherlands and the infrastructure which made it hard to introduce a central election. Thorbecke decide to create districts, as big as possible, and rather randomly, many even crossed provincial borders.(29) Only natural borders like rivers, lakes and marshland were taken into acount. (31)The system for instance made it difficult for catholic politicians to get elected. Despite their regional concentration, districts were often too big. (32) Definition of 'minorities' changed in the 1860s from predominantly local, regional, religious minorities to ideological minorities.(35) In the 1860s some MPs from the province of Limburg argued for the introduction of a new district in Limburg to expand the number of regional representatives.(35-6) Simultaneously a political/intellectual debate emerged about the system Hare that did not center on the need to represent regional interests but ideological minorities.(41) Early proponents of political parties, like Kuyper, pleaded for 'principal' rather than 'local' districts: representation should be based on ideology rather than place.(50) Sinds 1896 honderd enkelvoudige districten.(92) No elections in Veghel between 1897 and 1917 because the Catholic candidate was unopposed. As a result no political organisation of voters in these districts.(93) 18 kieskringen, iig 18 kandidatenlijsten in 1918. Partijstructuur van de SDAP sinds 1903: stedelijke federaties, gewestelijke federaties en districtsfederaties.(169) Macht van de afdelingen nam af, meer centralisatie (170) Toch nog macht voor afdelingen binnen het districtenstelsel omdat zij de kandidaatstelling in handen hadden,.. (170) Na 1918 werd het aantal afdelingen uitgebreid om de kiezers beter te kunnen bewerken. Max 300 leden per afdeling. (172) Op de samenstelling van de kandidatenlijsten hadden zij weinig invloed, federatie wel.((174) Lack of influence resulted in a lack of interest in politics at the base, SDAP.(182) Amsterdam for instance now had 24 'departments'. During elections they were not keen to organise activities. E. Polak therefore argued that the party should return to nine departments and make them responsible for propaganda. The 'federation' had been to big and slow to organise a proper campaign.(182) In the Hague and Amsterdam the reorganisation was reversed in 1920.(182) Diminising political participation of party members (SDAP) after 1918 (183) -- Liberalen waren veel minder strak in een partijverband georganiseerd, meer bonden van lokale verenigingen.(186) Bij VDB werden gewestelijke federaties verantworodelijk voor kandidaatstelling en propaganda (191) Maar sommige regionale kiesverenigingen bleven onafhankelijk en sloten zich vooralsnog niet bij een partij aan, zoals in Goes. (195) Loots gaat in op de kandidatuur Van Beresteyn.(196 ev) Er was in het districtenstelsel nooit zo'n discussie over kandidatuur ontstaan, dan had de lokale kiesvereniging gewoon haar zin door kunnen drijven.(197)