Politics of the Netherlands

The monarch is also ex officio chair of the Council of State, which advises the cabinet on every piece of legislation and is the final court for administrative law.The monarch used to appoint the informateur,[4] who chairs the formation talks, after consulting the parliamentary leaders of all parties represented in the lower house of the States General.Only the House of Representatives has the right to propose or amend legislation while the Senate discusses its value regarding the Dutch law since the Netherlands has no constitutional court.Nowadays, the Senate is mainly considered to be a body of elder statesmen reconsidering legislation at ease, away from the pressure of daily political and media hypes.The monarch leaves daily affairs to the Vice-President of the Council of State, currently Thom de Graaf, and the other councillors, who are mainly legal specialists, former ministers, members of parliament and judges or professors of law.The Dutch political system has five so-called High Councils of State, which are explicitly regarded as independent by the Constitution.As with the advice of the Council of State, the reports from these organisations are not easily put aside and often play a role in public and political debate.The SER heads a system of PBOs, self-regulating organisations that contribute to making laws for specific economic sectors.Other prominent advisory bodies are The Netherlands is divided into twelve provinces, which are responsible for spatial planning, health policy and recreation, within the bounds prescribed by the national government.Municipalities are responsible for education, spatial planning and social security, within the bounds prescribed by the national and provincial government.Local government on the Caribbean Netherlands is formed by three public bodies sometimes called "special municipalities" which are not part of a province.They are governed by a Lieutenant-general (Dutch: gezaghebber) and "eilandgedeputeerden" which are responsible to the island council, which is elected by direct suffrage.Furthermore, there are water boards which are responsible for the country's inland waterways, groundwater levels, polders, dikes and other waterworks.While historically the Netherlands used to be a neutral state, it has joined many international organisations since World War II, most prominently the United Nations, NATO and the European Union.Dutch policies on recreational drugs, prostitution, same-sex marriage, abortion and euthanasia are among the most liberal in the world.[citation needed] Before 1917, the Netherlands had a two-round system with census suffrage (per the Constitution of 1814), in which only property-owning adult males had the right to vote.Under influence of the rising socialist movement the requirements were gradually reduced until in 1917 the present party-list proportional representation voting system with universal manhood suffrage was instituted, expanded in 1919 to include women.In 1977 they merged into the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), which became a major force in Dutch politics, participating in governments uninterruptedly from 1977 until 1994.The Dutch welfare state had become the most extensive social security system in the world by the early eighties, but it came into crisis when spending rose due to dramatic high unemployment rates and poor economic growth.The centre-right and centre-left coalitions of CDA–VVD and CDA–PvdA reformed the Dutch welfare state to bring the budget deficit under control and to create jobs.When the far-left parties lost much electoral support in the 1986 elections, they decided to merge into the new GroenLinks in 1989, with considerable success.Since 2000, the Netherlands has largely supported the European Union and taken marked steps to integrate itself with it and improve its ties with NATO.Against popular sentiment, the right-wing coalition initiated a programme of welfare state reforms, healthcare privatisation, and stricter immigration policies.On 1 June 2005, the Dutch electorate voted in a referendum against the proposed European Constitution by a majority of 61.54%, three days after 57.67% of the French voters had rejected the treaty.In June 2006, D66 withdrew its support for the coalition in the aftermath of the upheaval about the asylum procedure of Ayaan Hirsi Ali instigated by immigration minister Rita Verdonk.The talks resulted in the formation of the social-Christian fourth Balkenende cabinet supported by CDA, PvdA, and the Christian Union.[10] The ensuing fourth Rutte cabinet failed to reach a compromise on asylum policy and fell in July 2023, triggering November snap election.