CABINETS IN THE NETHERLANDS (1918-1990) - THE IMPORTANCE OF DOMINANT AND CENTRAL PARTIES

Coalition theory has provided political scientists interested in cabinets in West European multiparty democracies with interesting theoretical concepts. These concepts have been applied on their own, in connection with other theoretical approaches but also in descriptively oriented empirical research. Both large scale cross-national and country specific analyses have been conducted. In this article I will examine the importance of the recently developed concepts of dominant and central players for cabinets in the Netherlands (1918-1990). I will show that especially the concept of the central player has important applications.