De Partij: over het Politieke Leven in de Vroege S.D.A.P.

by Adriaan van Veldhuizen

'The Party. The political life in the early SDAP' describes and analyses the origins and the first fifteen years of the Social Democratic Workers' Party in the Netherlands (SDAP) from a new perspective. Where most studies on political parties focus on what members mean to their parties, this book reverses the question and asks: what did the party mean to its first members? By taking regular local party members as the starting point for a party history, this book contributes to both the historiography of the SDAP and that of the emergence of political parties in the Netherlands. First and foremost, this ‘member perspective’ shows that the functioning of parties was not only shaped through the development of ideology, organizational structures, and leadership, but also by the need for sociability, local traditions, and several other social and cultural factors. By seeing the party as an association and seeing its members as members of a socialist family this book helps to understand the member’s manners, party leadership and the way the party functioned in politics. Although the SDAP is the focus here, it is likely that this approach would be fruitful for other parties too.

369 pages, Paperback

First published May 30, 2014

Reviews

[Leonie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heel interessant om te lezen hoe de SDAP is ontstaan. Vooral ook omdat het zo'n ander beeld is dan we tegenwoordig van de politieke partijen hebben.