Behind closed doors. Informal politics in Dutch municipalities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54195/plc.23568Keywords:
Informal politics, Local politics, Coalitions, Government-opposition, Population sizeAbstract
Despite generous attention at the national level, we know surprisingly little about the extent to which informal politics occurs at the local level and what drives this. This study addresses this gap by investigating the presence, variation and explanations of informal discussions between politicians in Dutch municipalities. Following a mixed-method design that includes semi-structured interviews in three carefully selected municipalities and a survey with answers from over a thousand Dutch councillors, we identify informal discussions amongst local politicians as highly prevalent in Dutch municipalities, particularly for coalition parties. Coalition members describe these informal meetings as crucial for decision-making, indicating how decisions tend to be made before entering the ‘formal’ political arena. We show these patterns to be consistent irrespective of coalition type – minimum winning, oversized or a council-wide agreement – and the population size of the municipality. These findings provide important first insights into the prevalence of these informal discussions at the local level, thereby developing a more comprehensive picture of how local democratic politics functions.
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Data Availability Statement
The quantitative part of this article is based on a survey that was fielded by the Dutch Association of Municipal Councillors (Nederlandse Vereniging van Raadsleden, NVVR). The survey responses were shared on the condition of anonymity.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Simon Otjes, Denny Van der Vlist, Thijs Vos (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
