Going Against the Consociational Grain: The Debate on the Dutch Advisory Referendum Act and the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement Referendum

Abstract

On April 6, 2016, the Netherlands held the first referendum under its new Advisory Referendum Act of 2015. Most Dutch commentators feel that this experience not an altogether gratifying experience. This blog reports on three of the most prominent critical claims made. Although some of these claims do make sense to a certain extent, the blog argues that the greater part of the discontent with the referendum actually goes a lot deeper: referendums seem to go against the grain of the time honoured Dutch political consensus culture.

Keywords: Referendum, Netherlands, consociationalism