Core Executives and Party Policies: Privatisation in the Netherlands
Author(s)
De Vries, Jouke; Yesilkagit, Kutsal
Abstract
The role of core executives in coordination processes is an important research topic in political science and public administration. This article analyses the coordinating role of core executives and party politics in the area of privatisation in the Netherlands between 1980 and 1994. We try to answer two questions. First, which core executives are important to what kind of coordination form in the policy area of privatisation? Second, what are the consequences of political changes in government from a centre-right to a centre-left coalition for the role of the core executives and the coordination style? We will argue, first, that the predominant coordination type in the Netherlands in this period was horizontal. Second, we argue that a change in party politics has no consequences for the coordination process and the influence of the core executives. Horizontal co-ordination is shown to be supplemented by cultural and vertical coordination. Furthermore, the study shows that a political change of a coalition government from centre-right to centre-left is not without consequences for the role of core executives and the substance of the privatisation policy.
