Abstract
Resignation by individual cabinet ministers is a major political event. Little is known, however, about the incidence, the patterns and the causes of ministerial resignations. This article works towards a political survival model of individual (junior and senior) ministers in the Netherlands, a country characterized by proportional representation and coalition governments. It does so on the basis of data for all 719 cabinet members serving between 1946 and 2010. It first establishes the turnover rate of individual cabinet members. On average, 15.0 per cent of all ministers step down individually before the end of their term. A total of 5.3 per cent resigns for political reasons, such as an internal conflict within the cabinet or losing the confidence of the party or parliament. With regard to political resignations, the Balkenende-era was the most turbulent of Dutch post-war political history. We then tried to explain the resignation hazard for individual ministers on the basis of recent comparative research. The analysis shows that previous experience in parliament makes the largest difference. Ministers lacking such experience are currently 51 per cent less likely to survive in office.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
These can be found at www.parlement.com.
As listed in the Royal Decree (Koninklijk Besluit) that carried the contraseign of the prime minister.
In the case of sudden, politically motivated resignations, the official date of the resignation often will be a few days after the factual resignation. According to Dutch constitutional practice, the resignation is not accepted by the Queen until a successor is appointed, in order to prevent a vacuum in the system of ministerial responsibility. Therefore, in most cases the formal moment of resignation coincides with the appointment of a successor. In some cases, for example, when it takes more time to find a successor, one of the other cabinet members is appointed as minister ad interim. These ad interim appointments were not listed as appointments and resignations.
This too was based on the information provided by the PDC. In some cases, when the information was ambiguous, we consulted additional sources, such as newspaper articles in NRC Handelsblad.
Also available online via www.parlando.sdu.nl and www.statengeneraaldigitaal.nl.
Between 1972 and 1983, the Dutch constitution did not allow members of demissionary cabinets to also take a seat in parliament.
Ed van Thijn, minister of the Interior, who also had been involved in the IRT-affair, was forced to resigned on the same day as Hirsch Ballin. However, he had been in office for a few months only.
Several cabinets were formed as interim-cabinets after the fall of a previous government, in preparation of new elections. For those cabinets, none of the factions in parliament has an electoral interest in keeping ministers in office per se. All such cases were coded as ‘not necessary for a parliamentary majority’.
See Dewan and Myatt (2007) for a theoretical justification of ‘two strikes and out’.
Again, we did not consider significance because our data cover the full population of Dutch ministers.
References
Andeweg, R. (2008) Coalition politics in the Netherlands: From accomodation to politicization. Acta Politica 43 (2–3): 254–277.
Andeweg, R. and Irwin, G. (2005) Governance and Politics of The Netherlands, 2nd edn. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bakema, W. and Secker, I. (1990) Vakbekwame ministers. In: R. Andeweg (ed.) Ministers en Ministerraad. Den Haag, the Netherlands: Sdu, pp. 71–96.
Berlinski, S., Dewan, T. and Dowding, K. (2007) The length of ministerial tenure in the United Kingdom, 1945–97. British Journal of Political Science 37 (2): 245–262.
Berlinski, S., Dewan, T., Dowding, K. and Subrahmanyam, G. (2009) Choosing, moving and resigning at Westminster, UK. In: K. Dowding and P. Dumont (eds.) The Selection of Ministers in Europe: Hiring and Firing. London: Routledge, pp. 58–78.
Bovens, M. and Wever, T. (2008) Aan het pluche gekleefd? Binnenlands bestuur 29: 26–31.
Box-Steffensmeier, J. and Jones, B. (1997) Time is of the essence: Event history models in political science. American Journal of Political Science 41 (4): 1414–1461.
Coakley, J. and Gallagher, M. (eds.) (1993) Politics in the Republic of Ireland, 2nd edn. Dublin, Ireland: Folens.
Dewan, T. and Dowding, K. (2005) The corrective effect of ministerial resignations on government popularity. American Journal of Political Science 49 (1): 46–56.
Dewan, T. and Myatt, D.P. (2007) Scandal, protection, and recovery in political cabinets. American Political Science Review 101 (1): 63–78.
Dowding, K. and Dumont, P. (eds.) (2009) The Selection of Ministers in Europe: Hiring and Firing. London: Routledge.
Dowding, K. and Kang, W.T. (1998) Ministerial resignations 1945–1997. Public Administration 76 (3): 411–429.
Dumont, P., Fiers, S. and Dandoy, R. (2009) Belgium: Ups and downs of ministerial careers in a partitocratic federal state. In: K. Dowding and P. Dumont (eds.) The Selection of Ministers in Europe: Hiring and Firing. London: Routledge, pp. 125–46.
Fischer, J., Kaiser, A. and Rohlfing, I. (2006) The push and pull of ministerial resignations in Germany, 1969–2005. West European Politics 29 (4): 709–735.
Fischer, J. and Kaiser, A. (2009) Hiring and firing ministers under informal constraints: Germany. In: K. Dowding and P. Dumont (eds.) The Selection of Ministers in Europe: Hiring and Firing. London: Routledge, pp. 21–40.
Gill, J. (2001) Whose variance is it anyway? Interpreting empirical models with state-level data. State Politics and Policy Quarterly 1 (3): 318–338.
Golub, J. (2008) Survival analysis. In: J. Box-Steffensmeier, H. Brady and D. Collier (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 531–546.
Huber, J. and Martinez-Gallardo, C. (2008) Replacing cabinet ministers: Patterns of ministerial stability in parliamentary democracies. American Political Science Review 102 (2): 169–180.
Indridason, I. H. and Kam, C. (2008) Cabinet reshuffles and ministerial drift. British Journal of Political Science 38 (4): 621–656.
Kam, C. and Indridason, I. H. (2005) The timing of cabinet reshuffles in five Westminster parliamentary systems. Legislative Studies Quarterly 30 (3): 327–363.
Kam, C. and Indridason, I. (2009) Cabinet dynamics and ministerial careers in the French fifth republic. In: K. Dowding and P. Dumont (eds.) The Selection of Ministers in Europe: Hiring and Firing. London: Routledge, pp. 41–57.
Lijphart, A. (1968) Verzuiling, pacificatie en kentering in de Nederlandse politiek. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: De Bussy.
Lijphart, A. (1999) Patterns of Democracy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties. (2009) Beleidsdruk in beeld: Politieke druk in de periode 1981–2008, een analyse van kamerinterventies. Den Haag, the Netherlands.
O’Malley, E. (2009) Constructing and maintaining Irish governments. In: K. Dowding and P. Dumont (eds.) The Selection of Ministers in Europe: Hiring and Firing. London: Routledge, pp. 179–193.
Secker, I. (1991) Ministers in beeld: De sociale en functionele herkomst van de Nederlandse ministers (1848–1990). Leiden, the Netherlands: DSWO Press.
Van Thijn, E. (1998) De Sorry-democratie: Recente politieke affaires en de ministeriële verantwoordelijkheid. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Van Gennep.
Verzichelli, L. (2009) Italy: The difficult road towards a more effective process of ministerial selection. In: K. Dowding and P. Dumont (eds.) The Selection of Ministers in Europe: Hiring and Firing. London: Routledge, pp. 79–100.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bovens, M., Brandsma, G. & Thesingh, D. Political death and survival in the Netherlands: Explaining resignations of individual cabinet members 1946–2010. Acta Polit 50, 127–150 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/ap.2014.1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/ap.2014.1