Is Holland a democracy?

Submitted by Igor (Germany), Oct 17, 2010 at 10:51

Democracy, as we use the word today, implies not only rule of majority over minority, but also protection of rights of every individual, personal freedoms, and rule of law. An essential part of the latter is separation of powers into legislative, executive, and judiciary.

In Europe, the "democracy" has always been lacking the separation of legislative and executive: The government (the executive) is elected by, and responsible to, the legislative. But, as I see now, in The Netherlands the judiciary is superior to the executive. It decides whether to charge someone and, at the same time, reaches the verdict and sentences him. It is hardly conceivable that the same body which finds someone worth charging would think he's innocent.

Lacking separation of powers, The Netherlands cannot have rule of law. Without it, it's not a democracy. Not as we understand it today.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".