Anti-Revolutionary Party

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The Anti-Revolutionary Party (

In 1864 Groen van Prinsterer began to correspond with a young Dutch Reformed theologian named Abraham Kuyper. Kuyper was heavily influenced by Groen van Prinsterer's ideas and began to put the latter's ideal of an orthodox Protestant society within Dutch society into practice.

Foundation

On 3 April 1879, Abraham Kuyper founded the ARP as part of the larger separate orthodox Protestant society within society. It was the first nationally organised political party in the Netherlands. An 1878 petition for

The ARP had one practical political goal: equalisation of payment between public and religious schools. It had one political strategy: the Antithesis between religious and non-religious parties, which meant that he sought to break the cooperation between liberals and Catholics and to create an alliance between Catholics and Protestants.

1879–1917

In 1879 thirteen anti-revolutionaries were among the hundred members of the House of Representatives, although not all were members of the ARP. During the period 1879–1883 their numbers grew slowly, peaking at 19. After the 1884 election they had 21 members of parliament. In 1886 they won their first seat in the Senate.

In the

In the

In the 1894 election the ARP lost almost half of its vote and six of its twenty-one seats. The Catholics broke their alliance with the ARP and supported a conservative cabinet. In the 1897 election the ARP won back some ground: it was supported by 26% of the electorate and won seventeen seats. The group around De Savorin Lohman, won 11% of the vote and six seats. A liberal cabinet was formed and the ARP was confined to opposition.

In

In the 1905 election the ARP lost only 3% of vote, but eight seats, although it was able to strengthen its position in the Senate. Kuyper, the party's leader, lost his own seat in Amsterdam to a progressive liberal. Theo Heemskerk led the anti-revolutionary parliamentary party. A minority liberal cabinet was formed. Former anti-revolutionary MP Staalman left ARP and founded the Christian Democratic Party, which later became the Christian Democratic Union, which would play a minor role in the interbellum political landscape.

In a 1908 Kuyper returned to the House of Representatives. After a crisis in the liberal cabinet Theo Heemskerk was given the chance to form a new cabinet. A minority confessional cabinet was formed. In the 1909 election the ARP won 3% of vote and twenty-five seats. The Heemskerk cabinet continues.

In 1912 Kuyper left national politics because of health reasons, and in 1913 he was elected to the Senate. In the 1913 election the ARP lost 6% of the votes, but lost more than half of its seats and was left with 11 seats. Another minority liberal cabinet was formed. The leadership of the ARP lay in the hands of less prominent politicians. Although a relatively small opposition party, the ARP played an important role in Dutch politics. The liberal minority cabinet, led by Cort van der Linden sought to resolve two important issues in Dutch politics: the conflict over the equalisation of payment for religious schools and universal suffrage. In the constitution change of 1917 both items were resolved. The ARP was given equal payment for religious schools, but it had to accept women's suffrage and proportional representation.

1917–1945

After the

After World War II the ARP returned to Dutch politics. The anti-revolutionary Jo Meynen was minister of War, albeit without support of his parliamentary party.

In the

After the 1952 election the ARP returned to the cabinet, which consisted of the confessional ARP, CHU, KVP and the social democratic PvdA, led by the social democrat Drees. Jelle Zijlstra became minister of economic affairs. In the 1956 election in which Jelle Zijlstra became political leader the ARP kept its 10% of the vote, but due to the enlargement of the House of Representatives it got 15 seats. A conflict between the PvdA and the KVP caused the early downfall of the cabinet. The ARP remained part of the care-taker cabinet led by Louis Beel. In the 1959 election the ARP lost another seat. It continued to be part of the cabinet, now led by Jan de Quay. The three confessional parties were joined by the conservative liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy.

After the

Meanwhile, a process of merger had started between the KVP, ARP and CHU. In 1974 they founded a federation called the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). In the formation of a common Christian democratic identity anti-revolutionary Aantjes played a decisive role: he orients the party towards the sermon on the Mount where Christ says that Christians should clothe the naked and feed the hungry. In the 1977 election they campaigned together under as the CDA. Some prominent anti-revolutionaries, like Aantjes did not agree the CDA/VVD cabinet that was formed after the election and wanted to continue with the PvdA. However, they supported the cabinet politically. A group of these anti-revolutionaries left the CDA in 1981 to found the left-wing Christian Evangelical People's Party.

While the ARP was one of the dominant forces in the merged party, it was not until 2002 that a CDA member with anti-revolutionary roots became Prime Minister, Jan Peter Balkenende.^[6]

Name

The Anti-Revolutionary Party derived its name from its opposition to the ideals of the liberal French Revolution (and certainly against those of Marxists). The label conservative was already taken by a parliamentary group of monarchists and colonialists, who fell out of favour in the late 19th century. In its early years the terms anti-revolutionary and Christian historical were used interchangeably. With the split between the ARP and the Christian Historical Union the terms began to gain their own separate meanings.

Ideology and issues

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The ARP started out as an orthodox

The ARP was a confessional Protestant party which based its politics on the Bible and opposed the concept of popular sovereignty.

The concept of sphere sovereignty was very important for the party. It wanted to create an independent Protestant society within the Dutch society, with its own schools, papers, hospitals etc. It sought equal government finances for its own institutions. Societies should care for their own, therefore they opposed a large role for the state in social-economic policy.

The ARP saw an important role for the state in upholding the values of the Dutch people. It was socially conservative: it opposed mixed-sex education, mandatory vaccination, divorce, pornography, euthanasia, abortion etc. It also favoured capital punishment.

Netherlands

The party can be seen as rather nationalist. It favoured a strong defence to retain Dutch neutrality. It opposed decolonisation. It saw the colonies in Indonesia as vital for the continued wealth and influence of the Dutch people. It also wanted to enlighten the native population with Christian values.

Monarchy

The ARP favoured monarchy, and saw the House of Orange as historically and religiously linked to the Dutch people. It opposed changes to Dutch political system, it wanted to retain bicameralism, opposed popular referendums etc. Its commitment to universal suffrage was only tactical as the ARP expected that it would be able to gain more seats this way. Principally it wanted Householder Franchise where the head of the household would vote for his family.^[8]

The party was fiscally conservative: the Dutch government should be like a good father: it should not spend more than it got through taxes.

Christian radicalism

In the 1960s and 1970s the party became more left-wing on many issues. Social justice became an important ideal of the party, both nationally, where it began to favour a stronger welfare state, and internationally, where development aid became an important issue.^[9]

Organisation

Leaders

Leader			Term of office	Age as leader	Lead candidate
		Dr. Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920)	3 April 1879 – 31 March 1920 [10]	41–82	1918
		Hendrikus Colijn (1869–1944)	31 March 1920 – 18 September 1944 Died in office [10]	50–75	1922 1925 1929 1933 1937
Vacant (18 September 1944 – 5 May 1945)
		Jan Schouten (1883–1963)	5 May 1945 – 23 April 1956 [10]	61–72	1946 1948 1952
		Dr. Jelle Zijlstra (1918–2001)	23 April 1956 – 3 October 1956 [10]	37–38	1956
		Dr. Sieuwert Bruins Slot (1906–1972)	3 October 1956 – 29 December 1958 [10]	50–52	None
		Dr. Jelle Zijlstra (1918–2001)	29 December 1958 – 26 May 1959 [10]	40	1959
		Dr. Sieuwert Bruins Slot (1906–1972)	26 May 1959 – 1 July 1963 [10]	53–57	None
		Barend Biesheuvel (1920–2001)	1 July 1963 – 7 March 1973 [10]	43–52	1963 1967 1971 1972
		Willem Aantjes (1923–2015)	7 March 1973 – 25 May 1977 [10]	50–54	None
Vacant (25 May 1977 – 27 September 1980)

Prime Ministers

• Barend Biesheuvel (1971–1973)
• Jelle Zijlstra (1966–1967)
• Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy (1940–1945)
• Hendrikus Colijn (1925–1926, 1933–1939)
• Theo Heemskerk (1908–1913)
• Abraham Kuyper (1901–1905)
• Æneas Mackay
  (1888–1891)

Leadership

Municipal and provincial government

The party was particularly strong in rural

• Between 1879 and 1917 the ARP appealed to "kleine luyden" (Dutch for the little people), the middle class, farmers, and workers, as a confessional party that favoured universal suffrage.
• Between 1917 and 1967 the ARP appealed to members of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands.
• Between 1967 and 1977, in the time of secularisation and depillarisation the party was able to appeal to younger generations, as the more left-wing confessional party.

Organisation

National organisation

The party's national secretariat was long housed in the Kuyper House in The Hague. It now houses the national secretariat of the Christian Democratic Appeal.

Linked organisations

The party published the magazine Nederlandse Gedachten ("Dutch Thoughts"). Its youth organisation was the Anti-Revolutionaire Jongeren Studieclubs ("Anti-Revolutionary Youth Studyclubs"). Its scientific institute was the Dr. A. Kuyper foundation.

International organisations

Internationally the ARP was a relatively isolated party. In the

Pillarised organisations

The party had close ties to many Protestant organisations, such as the

After World War II, the ARP became more isolated because of its position on the decolonisation of the Dutch East Indies. After Indonesia became independent, it joined the Labour Party (PvdA), KVP and the CHU in the cabinet. Links with the KVP were exceptionally good and it governed with the KVP and either the CHU and the PvdA. After the 1960s, calls to govern with the PvdA became stronger.

International comparison

Internationally the ARP was very similar to the Scandinavian Christian Democratic parties (such as the Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and the Finnish Christian Democrats), that are all socially and fiscally conservative, with a social heart. All have their roots in orthodox tendencies within the national church. In its conservative policies the ARP also shared similarities with the UK Conservatives (the paternalistic or moderate conservative wing of that party). Comparing the ARP to an American party is more difficult, but is seemed somewhat close to the moderate wing of the US Republicans (although the ARP was more socially inclined) or the conservative wing of the US Democratic Party.

References