This is an assignment for the class public institutions. The assignment was about writing advise for a populist party to achieve institutional change. I wrote the advise using the rational, historical and sociological institutionalist theory.
Ending the political party cartel
Leiden University
Master Economics & Governance
Public Institutions
Kevin Bakker, s2475588
Deadline: Friday October 18 at 23.59h
Words: 2736
, Introduction
Forum for Democracy (hereafter: FvD) is a Dutch anti-establishment populist party that greatly
received popularity since its foundation. The party’s main objective is to break the, as their leader
Thierry Baudet calls it, ‘party cartel’, which stands for the assumption that the political system is
dominated by a small group of politicians who more pursue their own interests and that of their
party than of the citizens. The party considers the party cartel the cause of several events that are
currently occurring– uncontrolled immigration, the euro currency, the bad quality of education and
health care [ CITATION For19 \l 1043 ].
In the latest Dutch Senate elections, the populist party FvD achieved its best results so far. While
controlling merely 2 out of the 150 parliamentary seats, the party had the highest possession of
seats: 12 out of 75 seats in the Senate [ CITATION Eer19 \l 1043 ]. Although recent polls don’t
predict the party will relive its success in the upcoming parliamentary elections, chances are that
the party could still become the biggest and it’s almost certain that their seats will increase. After
some bumps in the road, the polls show that the party has stabilized while its strong opponent
GroenLinks lost seats [ CITATION NOT19 \l 1043 ]. Moreover, with the parliamentary elections
taking place in over a year, chances are that the party’s popularity can soar just like it did with the
last elections. Also, even though global events – such as Brexit, the trade war and climate change
– aren’t causing results that are favorable for the party’s image, these events too could reach a
tipping point after which the global situation stabilizes and improves, it’s expected that this would
benefit the party.
All things considered, FvD could become the largest party in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Therefore, in preparation of this happening, the objective of this document is to formulate a
strategy for FvD which the party can use to achieve (radical) institutional change by ‘breaking’ the
party cartel. Also, by living up to the campaign pledges the party can maintain its position. The
geographical context of this strategy is limited to national level (The Netherlands).
The first paragraph’s focus is to provide and explain the theories used in this paper. Second, the
case is briefly elaborated, and some examples are given. Third, the case is analyzed in relation to
the theory. Fourth, recommendations (based on the analysis) are provided. Lastly, a conclusion will
be given in which the overall case will be discussed.
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