Editing Politics of the Netherlands (section)

===1800–1966===
The Netherlands has been a [[constitutional monarchy]] since 1813 and a [[Parliamentary system|parliamentary democracy]] since 1848. Previously, it was a [[republic]] from 1581 to 1806, and a kingdom between 1806 and 1810 (it was part of [[France]] between 1810 and 1813).{{citation needed|date=January 2014}}

Before 1917, the Netherlands had a [[two-round system]] with [[census suffrage]] (per the Constitution of 1814), in which only property-owning adult males had the right to vote. Under influence of the rising [[socialism|socialist]] movement the requirements were gradually reduced until in 1917 the present [[party-list proportional representation]] voting system with [[universal manhood suffrage]] was instituted, expanded in 1919 to include women.

Until 1966, Dutch politics was characterised by [[pillarisation]]. Society was separated into several segments (pillars) which lived separately from each other and there was only contact at the top levels, in government. These pillars had their own organisations, most importantly the political parties. There were four pillars, which provided the five most important parties, the socialist [[Labour Party (Netherlands)|Labour Party]] (PvdA), the conservative liberal [[People's Party for Freedom and Democracy]] (VVD), the [[Catholic People's Party]] (KVP) and the two conservative Protestant parties, the [[Christian Historical Union]] (CHU) and the [[Anti-Revolutionary Party]] (ARP). Since no party ever won an absolute majority, these political parties had to work together in coalition governments. These alternated between a centre-left "[[Roman/Red]]" coalition of PvdA, KVP, ARP and CHU and a centre-right coalition of VVD, KVP, ARP and CHU.

[[File:Dutchparlseats2.png|thumb|The seat distribution in the House of Representatives from 1946 to 2025. The [[Left (politics)|left-wing]] parties are on the bottom, the [[Christian democracy|Christian democratic]] parties in the center, with the [[Right (politics)|right-wing]] parties closer to the top. Occasionally [[One issue party|one-issue parties]] have arisen that are shown at the extreme top. Vertical lines indicate general elections.]]