All Quiet on the Royal Front. 150 Years of Continuous Monarchy in the Netherlands

Until the emergence of the Republican Society in 1996, the anti-monarchist movement in the Netherlands had for generations kept a very low profile. Under the present system, no minister holds political responsibility for the actions of the Queen. A cobbled-together procedure has for eighty years been the weak point in the constitutional system of the Netherlands. Until recently, the Queen's ‘prerogative' was for most political parties an obstacle to repairing that weak point. It may be that the ‘purple' coalition parties will finally overcome their timidity on this point.