Municipal Politics in the Netherlands

Research on municipal politics and governance in the Netherlands and elsewhere is fairly limited and fragmented. However, some case studies of participatory and deliberative innovations in Dutch municipalities exist. In addition, the various modes of service delivery and the impact of amalgamation have been studied. Much less attention has been devoted to the relationships within municipal governments (consisting of the municipal council, the mayor, and the executive board of mayor and aldermen) and to the influence of municipal governments within complex networks of private and public actors at various levels (from sub-municipal to international). Various studies—for instance, on the evolution of the municipal council, the Dutch Local Elections Studies (since 2016), and Dutch Local Political Elites Studies (since 2019)—are therefore necessary steps to describe and explain how municipalities deal with challenges such as post-New Public Management reforms, declining turnout, fragmentation of councils, increasing turnover of councillors, aldermen, and mayors, and how they can strengthen leadership and democratic accountability in complex multilevel network governance.