Whereas the six Dutch islands in the Caribbean all have a (very) limited population size, analyses of political problems on the islands rarely seem to take the variable of state size into account. The available academic literature demonstrates that the population size of states has a strong influence on the quality of democratic governance, although scholars disagree on the question whether smallness is an asset or an obstacle to democratic development. After a discussion of this theoretical literature, the present article proceeds with a presentation of field research in three small island states (St. Kitts and Nevis, Seychelles, and Palau) in which the political consequences of a limited population size are analyzed. This analysis reveals that a number of size-related effects can be observed in all three examined island states, among which a tendency to personalistic competition, strong polarization between parties and politicians, particularistic relationships between voters and their representatives, and a dominant position of the political executive vis-à-vis other institutions. A subsequent analysis of the contemporary political situation on the Dutch Caribbean islands shows that the observed problems also play a role on these islands, which indicates that smallness is perhaps of greater significance than is now often supposed. |
Beleid en Maatschappij
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Redactioneel |
Redactioneel |
Auteurs | Ewald Engelen |
Auteursinformatie |
Artikel |
Klein maar fijn?De effecten van kleinschaligheid op het karakter van politiek en democratie |
Trefwoorden | State Size, Dutch Caribbean Islands, Democracy, Good Governance, Personalistic Politics |
Auteurs | Dr. Wouter Veenendaal |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
Artikel |
Veranderend lokaal gezagDe gezagsbronnen van burgemeesters en wethouders verkend |
Trefwoorden | authority, political leadership, mayors, aldermen |
Auteurs | Dr. Niels Karsten MSc MA en Drs. Thijs Jansen |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
The traditional authority of mayors and aldermen is readily challenged. Formal positions do no longer constitute authority. For that reason, new political repertoires are being sought after and are being developed by local political-executive leaders. This article analyses and compares the sources of authority for mayors and aldermen: how can they develop, maintain, and strengthen their authority? It develops an innovative typology of sources of authority. A distinction is made between institutional, positional, and personal sources of authority. The model is applied to the mayors and aldermen in relation to relevant socio-political developments that affect the two offices. It is found that the authority of mayors rests on institutional sources of authority more so than that of aldermen. For the latter, positional and personal sources of authority are more important. At the same time, personal sources of authority have become very important for mayors as well as aldermen. The results call upon mayors and aldermen’s skills and competences to develop personal authority through persuasion. |
Artikel |
Burgertevredenheid met lokaal gemeentebeleid: meten is weten |
Trefwoorden | citizen satisfaction, municipal policy, Benefit-of-the-Doubt method, Weighting, Multidimensionality |
Auteurs | Prof. dr. Nicky Rogge, Prof. dr. Simon De Jaeger en Gilles Naets MA |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
Local officials, policy makers and scholars are increasingly interested in using citizen satisfaction surveys as an instrument to evaluate and analyze the performances and services of municipalities. The key reason for this popularity is the increasing awareness that citizen satisfaction ratings can give a good identification of the effectiveness of the municipal policy. However, a consistent approach to measure citizen satisfaction of the municipal policy in a multidimensional manner has yet to emerge. The construction of such a multi-criteria satisfaction score on municipal policy is indeed an intricate matter with several conceptual and methodological difficulties to overcome. One important difficulty is the question how to aggregate multiple aspects of municipal policy into an overall satisfaction measure. The current paper advocates the ‘Benefit-of-the-Doubt’ (BoD) methodology to weigh and summarize citizen satisfaction ratings on multiple dimensions and tasks of municipal policy into an overall citizen satisfaction score. The label ‘benefit-of-the-doubt’ highlights the main conceptual starting point of the method: in the absence of detailed knowledge on the correct weights for the different dimensions and tasks of the municipality, the BoD-model looks for each evaluated municipality for the most favourable set of weights. As municipalities are usually rather sensitive about being compared and evaluated against each other, this quality is clearly an important advantage of the BoD-model. We present both a static and dynamic version of the model. |
Discussie |
Kunst- en cultuurbeleid op zoek naar legitimatie |
Auteurs | Monique Kremer |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
Reflection and Debate initiates academically inspired discussions on issues that are on the current policy agenda. |
Discussie |
Maatschappelijke waardeEen nieuw fundament voor kunst- en cultuurbeleid |
Auteurs | Bastiaan Vinkenburg |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
Reflection and Debate initiates academically inspired discussions on issues that are on the current policy agenda. |
Discussie |
Laat cultuurbeleid over aan de politiek |
Auteurs | Prof. dr. Hans Blokland |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
Reflection and Debate initiates academically inspired discussions on issues that are on the current policy agenda. |
Casus |
Openbaarheid als elfde gebod? |
Auteurs | Sarah L. de Lange |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
In this feature authors discuss recent research findings that are of interest to readers of Beleid en Maatschappij. |
Casus |
Openbaarheid: de regels en het spel |
Auteurs | Eva de Best MSc en Prof. drs. Jacques Wallage |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
In this feature authors discuss recent research findings that are of interest to readers of Beleid en Maatschappij. |
Casus |
Snelheid, efficiëntie en transparantie: het Nederlandse wetgevingsproces in transitie? |
Auteurs | Mr. dr. Hans-Martien ten Napel |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
In this feature authors discuss recent research findings that are of interest to readers of Beleid en Maatschappij. |
Casus |
Transparantie in het wetgevingsprocesInternet en de mogelijkheid van een moderne volksvergadering |
Auteurs | Mr. Reijer Passchier |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
In this feature authors discuss recent research findings that are of interest to readers of Beleid en Maatschappij. |
Casus |
Gij zult beleefd glimlachen |
Auteurs | Mr. dr. Munish Ramlal |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
In this feature authors discuss recent research findings that are of interest to readers of Beleid en Maatschappij. |
Casus |
Meer openbaarheid, meer vertrouwen? |
Auteurs | Dr. Stephan Grimmelikhuijsen |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
In this feature authors discuss recent research findings that are of interest to readers of Beleid en Maatschappij. |
Casus |
Volgdewet! |
Auteurs | Drs. Yvette Jeuken |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
In this feature authors discuss recent research findings that are of interest to readers of Beleid en Maatschappij. |
Boekbespreking |
Kiezen tussen idealisme en scepsis |
Auteurs | Drs. Rob van Daal |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
In this feature authors review recently published books on subjects of interest to readers of Beleid en Maatschappij. |
Boekbespreking |
Een geslaagde verzoeningspoging |
Auteurs | Prof. dr. Jan Willem Duyvendak |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
In this feature authors review recently published books on subjects of interest to readers of Beleid en Maatschappij. |
Column |
Beleven wij echt een shift van government naar governance? |
Auteurs | Mr. drs. Jan Schrijver |
Auteursinformatie |