This article lists political parties in the Netherlands. The Netherlands has a multi-party system with numerous political parties, in which any one party has little chance of gaining power alone, and parties often work with each other to form coalition governments.
The lower house of the legislature, the House of Representatives, is elected by a national party-list system of proportional representation. There is no threshold for getting a seat, making it possible for a party to get a seat with only two-thirds percent of the vote—roughly one seat for every 50,000 votes. Since this system was implemented in 1918, no party has even approached the seats needed for an outright majority. However, there is a broad consensus on the basic principles of the political system, and all parties must adjust their goals to some extent in order to have a realistic chance at being part of the government.
Read more about Political Parties In The Netherlands: Defunct Parties
Famous quotes containing the words political, parties and/or netherlands:
“What I think the political correctness debate is really about is the power to be able to define. The definers want the power to name. And the defined are now taking that power away from them.”
—Toni Morrison (b. 1931)
“A true Friendship is as wise as it is tender. The parties to it yield implicitly to the guidance of their love, and know no other law nor kindness.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Greece is a sort of American vassal; the Netherlands is the country of American bases that grow like tulip bulbs; Cuba is the main sugar plantation of the American monopolies; Turkey is prepared to kow-tow before any United States pro-consul and Canada is the boring second fiddle in the American symphony.”
—Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko (1909–1989)