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Governance in Modern Society pp 203–222Cite as

Administrative Conditions to Institutional Politics: Federalism in an Unitary State

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Part of the book series: Library of Public Policy and Public Administration ((LPPP,volume 4))

Abstract

The Netherlands is a paradoxical case in comparative public administration and comparative political science. On the one hand it is often seen as one of the most centralized state systems in Western Europe. On the other hand the system exhibits the institutional characteristics of a fragmented and disjointed ‘consociational’ consensus democracy. The institutional features of both political and administrative systems are traditionally characterized by differentiation, plurality and diversity. This strange marriage between unity and plurality is reflected in the self-imposed label of the constitutional structure as a ‘decentralized unitary state’, a label that merely seems to underscore the hybrid nature of the system (Toonen, 1990). The combination of the characteristics of a plural consensus democracy with those of a unitary rather than a federal structure — which would have been in line with the more common pattern — makes it a case of its own in comparative studies (Lijphart, 1984). This case is difficult to assess in comparative terms and therefore intriguing in academic terms.

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Authors
  1. Theo A. J. Toonen
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Higher Education Policy Studies, Netherlands Institute of Government, University of Twente, Netherlands

    Oscar van Heffen

  2. Faculty of Social Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands

    Walter J. M. Kickert

  3. Faculty of Public Administration and Public Policy, Netherlands Institute of Government, University of Twente, Netherlands

    Jacques J. A. Thomassen

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© 2000 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Toonen, T.A.J. (2000). Administrative Conditions to Institutional Politics: Federalism in an Unitary State. In: van Heffen, O., Kickert, W.J.M., Thomassen, J.J.A. (eds) Governance in Modern Society. Library of Public Policy and Public Administration, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9486-8_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9486-8_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5594-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-015-9486-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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