Case Study: Dutch Political Parties at the Local Level

Party Branches and Independent Parties

Political parties operating at the local level can play two different roles. First, they act as local political parties pursuing representation in the local council. In this sense, they do not differ much from national parties, which do the same at a national level. Secondly, local political organizations may act as local branches of national political parties.

In most cases, parties at the local level combine both functions: they not only operate as political players in the local arena, but also as local representatives of their national mother parties. However, there are parties that confine themselves to either one of these roles. Besides national party branches that for tactical or practical reasons back out of local politics, these are mainly independent local political parties with no formal ties to any national political party (Geser, 1999: 3). According to this classification, two different types of local political parties can be distinguished:

1. Party branches: local party branches of national party organizations.

2. Independent parties: independent local parties with no formal ties to any national party.

Independent Parties
As independent parties have no ties with national parties, they play a distinct role in local politics. They are more clearly focused on local issues than party branches, and their political positions cannot be easily reduced to national political cleavages.

Programme and Profile of Party Branches and Independent Parties
The programmatic function of parties is twofold: to translate citizens’ wishes and ideas into a coherent political program; and to make clear what can be expected from the party in terms of political positions and policy proposals. These two are, ideally, a seamless match. If the party program is not based on local opinions about local issues, it will be hard for the party to offer the voters any clear option in elections and retain a distinct profile afterwards.

On the other hand, local voters would feel disappointed if the party does not act according to the expectations that were set in its program on municipal policy.In order to match both components of the programmatic function, it is important for the party program to identify and accentuate local conflicts, and then to take a position.

Wishes and ideas articulated in the program are only politically relevant if they embody conflict or controversy in the municipality. By taking a stand on such oppositions, the program gains a clear focus and the party a distinct profile. Ideological views on local society confer coherence on the political choices in the program, and thus reinforce the party’s profile.

Party Branches
The programmatic profile of a party branch is largely based on the national party’s manifesto. Even if branches of the same party respond to local circumstances in different ways, voters will mainly recognize a party branch by the national mother party’s programmatic profile that is embedded in national themes.

This makes it hard for local party branches to take a distinct position in matters of local controversy: it is almost impossible to frame local conflicts of interest between neighborhoods, or divergence of views on city center innovation into political dividing lines between social democrats, liberals, and Christian democrats. This means that although the ideological profile of party branches is clear enough, the electorate hardly knows how this translates into party positions on well-defined local issues.

Independent Parties
Independent parties are a diverse group of organizations that have only their non-alliance to a national political party in common. This makes it hard to pinpoint them ideologically.Survey data on the aims and basic principles of independent parties give a more in-depth picture of their programmatic profile. This data indicates that local political parties can be distinguished into three types of profiles:

1. Localist parties

These independent local parties distinguish themselves by their general focus on the quality of the local administration and democracy. They have a generally apolitical character: the main issue in their programs is the preservation of the municipality’s unique character. Half of all local political parties fall into this category. They are commonly independent local parties with a long history.

2. Protest parties

This type of independent local party is driven by opposition to a municipal plan, or by a general dissatisfaction with municipal administration. Well over a quarter of local independents fall into this category.

3. Interest parties

The last type is made up of independent parties that devote themselves to the interests of specific groups of residents. Almost a quarter of all local parties fall into this category. Like localist parties, interest parties have been around for some time.

Source: Independent Local Political Parties in the Netherlands