The Netherlands The role of cultural conservatism among voters and party elites

Against the background of the secularization process, this chapter examines how changes in cultural conservatism among voters and changes in political party programmes affects the religion–vote relationship. Employing the SOCON-surveys 1979–2010, it reveals that cultural conservatism is declining till 2000 among all denominations and also among frequent church attenders. Although cultural conservatism has a strong independent effect, it only marginally adds to the explanation of the association between denomination and religious voting. The relative decline of the religious population is the important driver for the declining support of religious parties. Due to the decline of both the Christian population and the religious orthodoxy of the Catholic population, Christian parties adjusted their party programmes accordingly. As the top-down approach predicts, a declining party focus on morality issues reduces religious based voting. The declining support of especially the CDA reduces the chances of remaining a major player in government coalitions.