The Road from a Depoliticized to a Centrifugal Democracy

Abstract

To explain the impact of the ‘new politics’ of Fortuyn and his party LPF on Dutch politics, we have analysed the election programmes 1998 and 2002. The positions of parties are measured by the confrontational approach. Dutch politics in 1998 was a depoliticized democracy, which we have modelled by a three-dimensional ideological triangle. This triangle is based on the division between the three main ideologies of the three-party families, the socialists, the liberals and the Christians. Fortuyn dominated the political agenda of the election of 2002 with his criticism on the purple coalition. His ‘new politics’ was focused on economic and multicultural issues. We have used these issues for the construction of a two-dimensional space of competition 2002. The model of 2002 helps to explain the ideological positions of the parties and the advent of a centrifugal democracy.