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    Essay 1 Political Rights

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    ekateryna249
    The document analyzes political rights in the Netherlands. It defines political rights as the right to vote, right to be elected, and right to participate in public affairs. The Netherlands scores highly on political freedom metrics due to its direct elections, proportional representation system, and lack of restrictions on political parties. However, it lost one point for lack of transparency in government agencies and childcare benefit algorithms. Overall, the Netherlands scores 39/40 for political rights, showing strong protections, though transparency could be improved. This demonstrates the importance of political rights for democracy and citizen well-being.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Essay 1 Political Rights

    Uploaded by

    ekateryna249
    9 views3 pages
    The document analyzes political rights in the Netherlands. It defines political rights as the right to vote, right to be elected, and right to participate in public affairs. The Netherlands scores highly on political freedom metrics due to its direct elections, proportional representation system, and lack of restrictions on political parties. However, it lost one point for lack of transparency in government agencies and childcare benefit algorithms. Overall, the Netherlands scores 39/40 for political rights, showing strong protections, though transparency could be improved. This demonstrates the importance of political rights for democracy and citizen well-being.

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    Political rights in the Netherlands overview

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    The document analyzes political rights in the Netherlands. It defines political rights as the right to vote, right to be elected, and right to participate in public affairs. The Netherlands scores highly on political freedom metrics due to its direct elections, proportional representation system, and lack of restrictions on political parties. However, it lost one point for lack of transparency in government agencies and childcare benefit algorithms. Overall, the Netherlands scores 39/40 for political rights, showing strong protections, though transparency could be improved. This demonstrates the importance of political rights for democracy and citizen well-being.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    9 views3 pages

    Essay 1 Political Rights

    Uploaded by

    ekateryna249
    The document analyzes political rights in the Netherlands. It defines political rights as the right to vote, right to be elected, and right to participate in public affairs. The Netherlands scores highly on political freedom metrics due to its direct elections, proportional representation system, and lack of restrictions on political parties. However, it lost one point for lack of transparency in government agencies and childcare benefit algorithms. Overall, the Netherlands scores 39/40 for political rights, showing strong protections, though transparency could be improved. This demonstrates the importance of political rights for democracy and citizen well-being.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    Political Rights in the Netherlands

    26/02/2024

    Every citizen has some political rights. We roughly know what they are and that they are
    important for the well-being of the population. But how well are they upkept and exercised in
    celebrated and successful democracies like the Netherlands? Analyzing the experience of a
    long-term democracy might give clues about the importance of political rights, where
    improvements should be made, and the necessity of increasing political rights for the success
    of other countries around the world.

    To look at what political rights exist in the Netherlands; we first need to define what they are.
    Based on the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Hemant More identifies the
    key elements of what constitutes political rights (More 2023). He defines political rights as
    “basic rights which allow an individual to participate directly or indirectly in the political
    activities of the state. Political rights include the right to vote, the right to be elected, the right
    to take part in public affairs” (ibid.).

    More elaborates that political rights constitute voting directly or indirectly, the right to be
    elected, and the right to free and periodic elections. In addition, the right to take part in public
    affairs includes the freedom of expression and assembly. In addition, proper participation in
    public affairs includes adequate access to the information held by public bodies which allows
    people to make informed choices, therefore exercising their political rights (More 2023).

    The political rights outlined above are important because they allow the people to be
    indiscriminately heard and represented in the government. This promotes and maintains
    democracy and peace in the country. To look at political rights in the Netherlands, the
    “political freedom” data from the Freedom House (FH) will be used. FH is a non-profit
    organization that measures the level of democracy, political freedom, and human rights
    around the world. I chose to use the political freedom data from the Freedom House because
    it is closely linked to the definition outlined by More. The “political freedom” data
    operationalizes the definition to be able to measure political rights out of forty points (FH
    2023: 1).

    To begin with, the Dutch governing body consists of two chambers of the parliament. The
    lower is called the House of Representatives and the higher States General. The House of
    Representatives is chosen through the general election by the people which uses the
    proportional system. After the parliament has been elected, a governing coalition should be
    formed with different parties, and the person who will head the government should be chosen
    (idem: 2). The Dutch Senate is indirectly elected by 12 provincial council members who are
    directly elected. The elected parliament then forms governmental policies (ibid.). By directly
    electing the House of Representatives and the provincial councils, the Dutch directly elect
    their governing body and indirectly their Senate, effectively exercising their political rights.

    1
    Moreover, The Dutch elections are considered to be free and fair as every governing body is
    either directly or indirectly chosen (idem: 3). In addition, elections are periodic, happening
    every four years for both chambers of the parliament. For the House of Representatives, there
    is no threshold for a minimum vote, usually allowing more than 15 parties to gain seats.
    Additionally, the elections are administered by the Election Council, which is considered to
    be free and impartial from the government (ibid.).

    As for participation in public affairs, political parties operate independently of control or


    restrictions on the candidates. Government funding is given to all parties with more than a
    thousand members, as well as parties on the municipal and provincial levels (ibid.). The
    parties compete freely for their government seats, as the proportional system allows many
    new parties to join the government. Typically, that parliament composition changes. For
    example, after the 2021 elections, four new parties managed to enter the government. This
    shows that parties can compete freely. Voters, including different minorities like the LGBTQ
    community, can express their opinions and make their own political choices without pressure,
    helping preferred parties to gain seats in the government (ibid.).

    Another component of effective participation in public affairs is freedom from corruption and
    adequate access to government information. The Netherlands has effective anti-corruption
    bodies, and codes of conduct that safeguard the country against corruption (idem: 4). The
    country typically has low levels of corruption, being the eighth least corrupt country in the
    world! (Transparency International 2023).

    Surprisingly, the Netherlands is marked down by one point for the lack of governmental
    transparency, depriving the country of the perfect score in political rights (FH 2023: 4). Even
    though “The Open Government Act” requires the government to make their documents
    public online without request, the majority of governmental agencies fail to do so proactively
    and clearly and also miss their deadlines. There has also been a scandal regarding the
    childcare allowances. The government accused multiple families of child allowance fraud
    based on discriminatory and untransparent algorithms. The government has since promised to
    be more transparent, making state inspectors more independent. This lost point for lack of
    transparency was also seen in the previous year’s report of 2022 (ibid.). This is particularly
    surprising as the Dutch reports from 2017 until 2021 show that the country has had a perfect
    score for political rights.

    In conclusion, the Netherlands scored a 39/40 result for political rights in 2023, showing a
    remarkable result (FH 2023: 1). The Dutch people exercise a considerable number of political
    rights including the right to vote, to be elected, free and fair elections, and effective
    participation in the public affairs of the country. While governmental transparency should be
    improved, the rest of the rights can maybe explain why most Dutch people are satisfied with
    their lives (OECD 2024). This means that other countries around the world should aim to
    grant more and better-quality political rights to their citizens.

    2
    Bibliography

    (FH) Freedom House (2023). “Political Freedom in the Netherlands”. Washington D.C.: FH.

    More, H. (2023). “Political Rights”, The Legal Quotient, May 2: 1.

    (OECD) Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (2023). “The Better
    Living Index, Netherlands”. Paris: OECD.

    Transparency International (2023). “Transparency International Netherlands”. Berlin:


    Transparency International.

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