Young People and Politics in the Netherlands.

Although it is undeniable that the Internet and the social media play an important role in the political socialization process of young people (Möller, 2013), I think it is still important to give young people a strong foundation in relation to political knowledge. This could be done by offering citizenship courses at school which could contribute in the development of politically active citizens. It appears that nowadays the participation of young people in the political process decreases both in conventional and unconventional participation (Quintelier, 2007).

In conventional political participation activities of citizens within political parties, contacts with officials and politicians and reading and talking about politics are included. Unconventional political participation is described, among other things, as activities of citizens such as demonstrating, stopping and participating in blockades and occupations ( Elzinga,1984).

Figure one shows that young people vote less often than older age groups and are less political interested.

Figure 1 Participation in elections, political activities and political interest towards population characteristics, 2012/2016 ^*

Source: CBS, Electoral Council.

Striking features of the second chamber elections 2017 (the Dutch equivalent of the house of representatives) were that the election attendance in 2017 was relatively high at 80.8 percent: an increase of 6.2 percentage points compared to 2012 and 5.4 percentage points compared to the  2010 levels. Only 66% of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 went to vote (Advalvas, 2017).

Participation in second chamber elections of 2017 among the lowest-educated was 65 percent, and with the increase of the education level it increased  to 89 percent among the highly educated (Schmeets,2017).

As we can see from the graph below (figure 2), education strongly determines whether or not one participates in the political process; the more highly educated people are, the more they are inclined to vote. The same applies to income:  the higher the income, the greater the participation. Older people, married people and people with a Dutch background often go to the polls relatively often. This justifies the recommendation that more attention be paid to citizenship in both primary and secondary education in order to give everyone in the Netherlands the chance to develop into a full-fledged citizen (Schmeets,H.,2017).

Figure 2
Participation in elections, political activities and political interest towards population characteristics, 2012/2016

Source: CBS, S&W. (Schmeets,H. 2017).

We can see in figure 3 what young people in the Netherlands find important in their political choices. Research shows that education and sustainability are the most important topics. Healthcare, European Union and immigration also score high.

Figure 3
Which topics have played an important role in your party choice? An analysis of the I & O final poll and motivations of voters in voting behavior on March 15, 2017 

Source: I&O research, Kanne,P.,Beijen,M., Klein Kranenburg,L.(2017).

How is citizenship education regulated in the Netherlands?
Learning citizenship is one of the core tasks of the school. It is important to develop competences in young people that are needed to be an active citizen in society (Munniksma et al, 2017). However, education fails at this point. The Inspectorate found that the activities in schools have little connection, that a planned approach is lacking, that schools do not formulate what they want to teach and that they do not know what pupils learn. It has only been stipulated that schools must pay attention to citizenship (Inspectie van het onderwijs, 2017).

Examples of core objectives in secondary education formulated by the inspection are that pupils:

• Learn about similarities, differences and changes in culture and philosophy of life in the Netherlands
• Learn how to relate to their own and other people’s way of life
• Learns to see the meaning for society of respect for each other’s views and ways of life
• Learn in general terms how the Dutch political system functions as a democracy
• Learn how people can be involved in political processes in different ways
•  Learn to understand the meaning of European cooperation and the European Union for itself, the Netherlands and the world (Inspectie van het Onderwijs, 2006)

An international comparative study shows that students from Finland and the Netherlands score high when it comes to citizenship sciences but score relatively low when it comes to political engagement (Schulz et al, 2016). Furthermore, Pupils from the second year in secondary education in the Netherlands are not well aware of the functioning of democracy and have shown little involvement in politics. This was concluded by an international study that compares the Netherlands with comparable countries such as Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Flanders (Belgium) (Munniksma et al, 2017).

The question is whether schools meet the requirements of the inspectorate to offer citizenship in secondary schools. The conclusion is not exactly encouraging. The report concludes that, compared to other countries, schools do pay little attention to citizenship and young people have few citizenship skills. What is promising in any case is that the students from the Netherlands do better nowadays than in 2009 (Munniksma et al, 2017).

At secondary school, I opted for the Social Sciences and Philosophy courses, but on a voluntary basis. The course Social studies, where there is relatively much attention for citizenship, is compulsory for every student. Mostly it is about 1 hour per week, compared with other courses, this is very little attention.

To conclude, if the focus is on more education in citizenship, I hope that the participation of young persons in all kind of social, political processes will increase. Currently there are many issues that ask for a long-term approach to anticipate the consequences of these issues. For example, climate change, the affordability of health care, the application of complete new energy sources and finding a home in a tight market. If younger people do not get involved more in politics they will miss the opportunity to have a say in the solutions for these problems and will be left confronted with the consequences.

References:

Advalvas,2017. Onafhankelijk platform van de vrije universiteit Amsterdam. Available at: https://www.advalvas.vu.nl/nieuws/jongeren-laten-het-weer-afweten-bij-verkiezingen   (Accessed at: 06/02/2018)

Bron,J. Toezicht. 2015. Available at:  http://burgerschapindeschool.nl/toezicht

Elzinga,E., 1984 Vorm en van politieke participatie in Nederland Mens en Maatschappij no. 4 jrg . 59 1984  Available at: http://rjh.ub.rug.nl/MenM/article/viewFile/12923/10417

Inspectie van het Onderwijs, september 2006. Available at: https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/brochures/2010/08/30/toezicht-op-burgerschap-en-integratie-door-de-inspectie-van-het-onderwijs

Inspectie van het Onderwijs, (2016) Burgerschap op school. Available at: https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/rapporten/2017/02/07/themarapport-burgerschap-en-maatschappelijke-stage

Kanne,P.,Beijen,M., Klein Kranenburg,L. (2017). Nameting tweede kamer verkiezingen 2017. I&O Research. Amsterdam. Available at: https://ioresearch.nl/Portals/0/I%26O%20rapportage%20nameting%20TK2017.pdf

Möller, J. E. (2013). Growing into citizenship: The differential role of the media in the political socialization of adolescents. Available at: https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/1774261/130264_09.pdf

Munniksma,A.,Dijkstra,A.B., Veen van der,I., Ledoux,G., Werfhorst van de, H., & Dam ten,G. (2017). Burgerschap in het voortgezet onderwijs. Amsterdam Nederland in vergelijkend perspectief 2017

Quintelier,E.(2007).Contempory politics, volume 12, number 2. Available at:https://lirias.kuleuven.be/bitstream/123456789/183907/2/CP_Youth%2520and%2520Politics.pdf?utm_source=mandiner&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=mandiner_201712

Schmeets,H. 2017. Politieke betrokkenheid in Nederland. Available at: https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/achtergrond/2017/50/politieke-betrokkenheid-in-nederland

Schulz, W., Ainley, A., Fraillon, J, Losito, B., & Agrusti, G. (2016). IEA International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2016 Assessment Framework. Amsterdam: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA).