Dutch nationalism and the question of foreigners in the Netherlands /

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1164364 (Table of Contents)

It is argued in classical political science that policy outputs are fed by public preferences (inputs). It is also argued that these inputs more resonate in Western democracies. For that reason, policy outputs in democratic countries are expected to reflect public preferences. At this point, it is important to know how to measure and how to reach these preferences and clear result of this process is public opinion polls. In that sense, it is discussed that in spite of the fact that the credibility of public opinion polls is a bit controversial, they still measure and reflect public preferences. In this context, according to the eurobarometer survey results, although Dutch people are as xenophobic as European average, these xenophobic sentiments that constitute public inputs do not turn into policy outputs in the Netherlands. Therefore, in the Dutch case, policy outputs and public inputs differ from each other. Indeed, integrative immigration policy and weaker extreme right party tradition are clear proof of this situation in the country. However, why classical input-output correlation does not work in the Netherlands? According to the findings of this study, civic nationalism and the pillar system prevent public inputs in transforming into policy outputs.