Rediscovering Europe in the Netherlands - St Antony's College ...

safeguards and direct citizen participation
The targeted use of certain forms of citizen participation can be a useful
addition to existing political and administrative arrangements; more than
that, they can also provide an incentive for addressing structural obstacles
or break vicious circles in the regular representative system. This finding
also offers hope for what is currently the defective bond between politicians
and citizens in Dutch eu policy. As the present political and administrative
structure provides too little incentive for policy makers and political
parties to become involved in and to position themselves on eu policy,
the use of the instruments discussed in this chapter – provided this is done
with a certain regularity and level of care – would force politicians and
governments to become more active in this respect. This would also
provide an impulse for the activation of the media and – depending on the
topic – civil society organisations as well.
The introduction of these alternative instruments of direct democracy
should, however, not be considered a panacea, nor a guarantee for successful
(selective) politicisation and/or an improvement of the legitimisation
processes for national or European policy. If politicians who do not know
what they want are ranged against uncertain citizens who do not know
what is at stake (Groeneveld 2006), referenda actually lead to more rather
than less frustration on both sides. The condition for the selective and
occasional use of the instruments discussed here are therefore crucial. In
order not to feed cynicism and disillusionment, it must be crystal clear for
both participants and politicians in advance whether and to what extent
that involvement actually matters. In addition to a commitment on the
part of politicians, this demands clarity on the question being voted on, the
design of the process and the degree to which the outcome is binding. And
even if the greatest possible care is used with respect to these elements, the
scale and representativeness of the initiatives discussed here still deserve
attention. Generally, opening up more routes to political participation
initially only leads to greater participation on the part of the very group
of citizens that is already informed and participating. Taking this into
account, it is still first and foremost the politicians’ task to initiate discussion
on issues considered sensitive, to ask the right questions and to
assume their responsibilities. This reinforces the call made in chapter 3 for
political decisiveness and vision when it comes to eu policy in the Netherlands.
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4.4 conclusion
Both safeguards and forms of direct citizen participation in principle offer
opportunities for improving eu policy legitimisation in the Netherlands –
in principle, because in both cases the opportunities are conditional. For