Politics
Dec 17, 2009
The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy with a bicameral parliament and universal suffrage based on a system of proportional representation. This system gives a large number of parties the opportunity to win seats in parliament, such that no single party has an overall majority. The monarchy symbolizes national unity and therefore has a more ceremonial character. The political preferences of the Dutch people are much the same as is found in the rest of Europe: the three main moderate political tendencies are represented by the social democrats, the Christian democrats and the liberal parties. The smaller parties are generally less moderate variations on one of the three main lines.