Table of contents
List of tables 8
List of figures 9
Acknowledgements 11
Preface 15
1 Political discontent in the exemplary case of the Netherlands 19
Political discontent in the Netherlands 20
Research approach 23
On the research choices made 27
Structure of this thesis 27
2 On Political Support and Political Discontent: Concepts,
Trends and Theories 31
On political discontent and political support: concepts and
meaning 31
Theoretical models for analysing political support 34
Trends and theories 46
Specified research questions 54
3 Mapping (the Survey Statistics) of Political Discontent in the
Netherlands 57
Growing discontent with current government (policy) and
incumbent officeholders? 59
Growing discontent with political institutions and politicians
in general? 65
Growing discontent with democratic principles and values? 71
Comparing types and levels of political discontent in survey
studies 74
4 In conversation with politically dissatisfied citizens 79
Assessment of Politics: Objects of Discontent in Detail 85
Intensity and deepseatedness of the cynicism 93
What Influences the Intensity of Political Cynicism? 97
Summary, Review and Discussion 99
5 Political Discontent and Political Behaviour in the Netherlands 107
Exit or voice? 107
Political discontent and political behaviour in Dutch
Parliamentary Election Studies 2010 109
The political behaviour of political cynics through interviews 129
Comparing Results 135
6 Understanding the Public Attention for Political Discontent 139
Data and methods 140
Newspaper attention for political discontent from 1970-2010 143
Interim conclusions and reflections on the growing attention
for political discontent in newspapers 158
Parliamentary discussions on political discontent since 1995 160
Interim conclusions and reflections on the growing attention
for political discontent in parliament 166
Concluding reflections on the growing newspaper and
parliamentary attention for political discontent 167
Explaining the growth of attention 169
7 Summary, Closing Reflections and Policy Implications 173
Summary 173
Closing reflections 183
Comparing 7
Appendices 193
Appendix A 195
Appendix B 197
Appendix C 199
Appendix D 203
Appendix E 213
Appendix F 217
Bibliography 227
Index 249
Preface
Acknowledgements
Table of contents
List of tables
List of figures
Chapter 1: Introduction. Political discontent in the exemplary case of the
Netherlands
Chapter 2: On Political Support and Political Discontent,
Concepts, Trends and Theories
Chapter 3: Mapping (the Survey Statistics of) Political Discontent in the Netherlands
Chapter 4: In Conversation with Politically Dissatisfied Citizens
Chapter 5: Political Discontent and Political Behaviour in the Netherlands
Chapter 6: Understanding the Public Attention for Political Discontent
Chapter 7: Summary and Closing Reflections
Nederlandse samenvatting
Appendixes
A Overview of political parties in Dutch parliament in 2006 and 2010
B Consent form interviews
C Interview format
D Original text of parts of the interviews used in Chapter 4 and Chapter 5
E Overview of newsarticles quoted in Chapter 6
F Overview of survey items used in Chapter 5
Bibliography