oa Polarisatie in de Nederlandse samenleving en politiek: het integratiebeleid

Polarization in Dutch society and politics: the ethnic integration policy .

A growing polarization features current debates in the Netherlands. However, a systematic measurement of polarization is missing thus far. The present paper aims to describe and compare trends in societal and political polarization on Dutch ethnic integration policy using a refined polarization measure. Based on political competition models and agenda theory, it is predicted that the electoral salience of an issue positively affects political polarization, but negatively affects societal polarization. Analyses of data from Dutch political election studies and party manifestos show that polarization trends on ethnic integration policy in Dutch politics are markedly dissimilar from polarization trends in society. Moreover, trends in electoral salience of ethnic integration policy are comparable to political polarization trends, but seem opposed to societal polarization trends.