In which our heroine attempts to explain the ins and outs of governing, Gone Dutch.

The Netherlands is a bit weird. It’s both a Constitutional Monarchy and a Parliamentary Democracy. The government here tries to get a broad consensus from both the parliament and the people on important issues. It’s not for nothing that the Netherlands was voted 3^rd most democratic country in 2007.

Our official head of state is Queen Beatrix. She does have actual government powers. She approves a new cabinet, accepts the resignation of a cabinet if the government falls, and can veto laws. She is not allowed to propose laws or amendments. I have a lot of respect for the Queen. She’s a very intelligent and politically savvy woman. She holds double degrees in political science and law from the University of Leiden and speaks 6 languages fluently.

The head of government is the prime minister. Right now, that’s Jan Peter Balkenede or Harry Potter if you ask the Belgians. The PM is usually the head of the largest party of the current coalition. He doesn’t have anymore powers than the rest of the ministers.

The vice prime minister is usually the head of the second largest party in the current coalition. Right now, we have 2 VPMs.

The Cabinet is usually 13 to 16 ministers, a bunch of secretaries and a couple of ‘members without portfolios”. Pretty much the same departments that the US has. State, Interior, Transportation, Education… you get the general idea. More on the formation and functions of various people later.

The Cabinet answers to Parliament. Parliament is made up of 2 chambers. The First Chamber, or upper house is 75 members chosen by the provincial assemblies. They can only veto laws and they can only veto a law 3 times. If it passes the lower house a fourth time, they have no choice but to pass it onto the Queen. The people have spoken. However, if the Queen vetoes it, it’s dead. It has to be reworked and repassed until she’s happy.

The Second Chamber, or lower house, has 150 members that are directly elected every 4 years or whenever the cabinet falls. The cabinet falls if a vote of no confidence is carried by the lower house. The cabinet then submits it’s resignation to the Queen. She either accepts its or tells them to go back, put on their grownup under-roos and fix it. We’re on Balkenende 4 and none of his parliaments have ever made it the full 4 years. Take from that what you will.

Because we have so many different parties, no one party has controlled the government since the 1800s. The three main ‘families’ of political parties are the Christian Democrats, the Social Democrats, and the Liberals. Currently, there are 10 different parties in parliament, ranging from the Christian Democrat Appeal, to the Labor party (PvdA), to the Liberals(VVD) to the Party for the Animals. Ok, so the last one only has 2 seats out of 75 but the animals have representation.

Now, I hear you asking over there, “How in the name of Pete does this work? How do things ever get done?” Well, the short answer is, “Slowly”. Let’s talk about the long answer, ok?

First, everyone runs to the polls and votes. The number of votes needed to win a seat in parliament changes every election. It’s based on the total number of votes divided by 150. A party figures it will get X number of seats this election and puts it’s top people in those spots. With the party leader at #1 of course. You can either vote JUST for a party or for individuals in that party. If no-one gets the required number of votes, then the first X people get the seats. With me so far? Good, because here is where it gets fun.

Now let’s say it takes 50,000 votes to win a seat. Party ABC gets 345,000 votes. That’s 6 seats and change. What are we going to do about those 45,000 ‘extra’ votes? Just throw them away? Of course not! This is the Netherlands, we don’t throw anything away. Ever. So we wait until everything is counted and look, we have a few seats left over! So we go down the list. Who has the most ‘left-over’ votes? First in line is party ABC. One seat for you. And so on and so on until all seats are awarded.

Ok, voting over, all seats awarded. Now what? It’s coalition time, baby.

(TO BE CONTINUED…)