Pillarization

Pillarization describes a society as divided into a number of "pillars," being compartments standing for the networks of organizations belonging to religious and ideological subcultures. Typically the associations cover a broad range of societal domains (education, media, political parties). The Netherlands is considered the purest example of a pillarized society from approximately the 1900s until the late 1960s, when there existed a Catholic, a Reformed a socialist, and a neutral or liberal pillar. This societal configuration functioned politically as a "consociational democracy," a term coined by the political scientist Arend Lijphart. In order to gain a fair picture of the contemporary relevance of pillarization for Dutch society and politics, one should distinguish between social, institutional, cultural, and discursive legacies and differentiate between the impact of these legacies in specific societal and policy domains.