The Youth Organisation Freedom and Democracy (Dutch: Jongeren Organisatie Vrijheid en Democratie, JOVD) is one of the oldest political youth organisations in the Netherlands. It is a liberal organisation for people aged between fourteen and thirty one. Current President is Jarico Vos.
JOVD has a contract of cooperation with People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD).
The organisation is responsible for having trained many staatssecretarissen and well known members of the House of Representatives. For example, Mark Rutte, Leader of the VVD and Prime Minister of the Netherlands was JOVD chairman from 1988 to 1991.
JOVD publishes the political magazine Driemaster for its members and stakeholders. Currently elected editor in chief is Dennis van den Oever.
JOVD is a member of both the European Liberal Youth (LYMEC) and International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY).
Famous quotes containing the words youth, organisation, freedom and/or democracy:
“Do they merit vitriol, even a drop of it? Yes, because they corrupt the young, persuading them that the mature world, which produced Beethoven and Schweitzer, sets an even higher value on the transient anodynes of youth than does youth itself.... They are the Hollow Men. They are electronic lice.”
—Anthony Burgess (b. 1917)
“It is because the body is a machine that education is possible. Education is the formation of habits, a superinducing of an artificial organisation upon the natural organisation of the body.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895)
“Is a Bill of Rights a security for [religious liberty]? If there were but one sect in America, a Bill of Rights would be a small protection for liberty.... Freedom derives from a multiplicity of sects, which pervade America, and which is the best and only security for religious liberty in any society. For where there is such a variety of sects, there cannot be a majority of any one sect to oppress and persecute the rest.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
“When an opinion has taken root in a democracy and established itself in the minds of the majority, it afterward persists by itself, needing no effort to maintain it since no one attacks it. Those who at first rejected it as false come in the end to adopt it as accepted, and even those who still at the bottom of their hearts oppose it keep their views to themselves, taking great care to avoid a dangerous and futile contest.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)