Wal, Jorrit van der (2025) Polarisation in Dutch Parliamentary Voting: A Social Network Approach to Polarisation. Bachelor thesis, Sociology.
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Abstract
Despite a substantial body of research on polarisation, systematic quantitative research into the degree of elite polarisation in multi-party legislatures has been conducted sparsely. Using a social network analysis of Dutch parliamentary voting spanning over 53 years, the current research aims to identify how elite polarisation in a multi-party legislature has evolved over time. Applying modularity as a measure of polarisation, this study examines coalition-opposition divides and their development, as well as bottom-up identified dividing lines, contributing to the academic understanding of elite behaviour in multi-party legislative systems. The study finds no evidence for a dividing line between coalition and opposition, contradicting previous findings. Generally, no evidence is found for increasing trends of polarisation, although weakly supportive evidence for a U-shaped trend since the 1970s indicates periodic shifts in the degree of polarisation. Of all issue categories, agriculture is found to be the most polarised topic in most cabinet periods between 1994 and 2024, for which data on issue category was available. Finally, it is discussed that citizen estimates of elite polarisation differ substantially from the findings of this study, suggesting that for judgment of the degree of polarisation in parliament, perceptions of polarisation may play a larger role than elite ideological polarisation in parliamentary voting patterns.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Bachelor) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Flache, A. |
| Degree programme: | Sociology |
| Differentiation route: | None [Bachelor Sociology] |
| Date Deposited: | 08 Jul 2025 12:03 |
| Last Modified: | 08 Jul 2025 12:03 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/5366 |
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