Kiesstelsel en partijen

It is disappointing that the concept makes no mention of the Dutch political parties in spite of their complexity, for political parties are among the most ! important power-regulating channels of a political system. The Dutch electoral system of proportional representation is not touched upon, either; only minor linguistic corrections are proposed. The author devotes special attention to the proposed change of article 88 — ‘The Estates-General represent the whole of the Dutch people’ — into — ‘The Estates-General represent the Dutch people and article 96 — The members vote without mandate or consultation of those who appoint’ — into — ‘The members vote without mandate’ —. He considers this to be detrimental to the idea of the ‘united popular will’, while at the same time the legal reins of ‘those who appoint’ — i.e. the political parties — are loosened. The author objects to certain practices e.g. of the Catholic People’s Party, where a Party Congress can force certain elected persons to vacate their seat; the Concept s new version would sanction this practice. In the author’s view, a voters’ judgment should not be canceled by party members