The Katholieke Volkspartij (in English: Catholic People's Party; abbreviated as KVP) was a Catholic Christian-democratic Dutch political party. During its entire existence, the party was in government. Christian Democracy is a political ideology, born at the end of the 19th century, largely as a result of the papal encyclical Rerum Novarum of Pope Leo XIII, in which the Vatican recognizes workers misery and agrees that something should be done about it, in reaction to the rise of...

History

1945-1958

The KVP was founded on 22 December 1945. It was a continuation of the pre-war Rooms-Katholieke Staatspartij (in English: Roman Catholic Political Party; abbreviated as RKSP). Unlike the RKSP, the KVP was open to people of all denominations, but mainly Catholics supported the party. In the elections of 1946 the party won a third of the vote, and joined the newly founded social-democratic PvdA to form a coalition. This Rooms-Rode coalition (Rooms, Roman for the Roman-Catholic KVP, Rood, Red for the Social-democratic PvdA) lasted until 1956. Except for the first two years (1946-1948) all these cabinets were led by the moderate social-democrat Drees. The PvdA and the KVP were joined by combinations of the protestant-Christian ARP and CHU and the liberal VVD to form oversized cabinets, that often held a comfortable two-thirds majority. The cabinets helped rebuild the Dutch society and economy after the ravages of the Second World War and set the Dutch colony Indonesia free. In 1948 a small group of Catholics broke away from the KVP to form the Katholieke Nationale Partij (KNP): it was opposed to the decolonisation of Indonesia and to cooperation between the Catholics and social-democrats. Under pressure of the Catholic Church the two parties united again in 1955. December 22 is the 356th day of the year (357th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Social democracy is a political ideology that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from supporters of Marxism. ... For the Belgian political party of the same name, see Partij van de Arbeid (Belgium). ... A coalition is an alliance between entities, during which they cooperate in joint action, each in their own self-interest. ... Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ... The Anti-Revolutionaire Partij (Dutch for Anti Revolutionary Party) was the first Dutch political party. ... The Christian-Historical Union (CHU) was a dutch protestant-christian party. ... This article discusses liberalism as a major political ideology as it developed and stands currently. ... The Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD), literally Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy, is a free market liberal party in the Netherlands. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... In politics and in history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a geographically-distant state (or city, in ancient times). ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

1958-1965

In the period 1958-1965 the KVP was at the height of its power. It was the leading force in all cabinets and supplied all the prime-ministers. After a cabinet crisis 1958 the KVP and the PvdA split. After the 1959 elections the KVP joined with the ARP, CHU and VVD to form a centre-right cabinet de Quay. It continued to strengthen the welfare state. The coalition maintained its majority in the 1963 elections, and subsequently the cabinet Marijnen was followed with the same parties. This coalition oversaw an economic high conjuncture. An internal dispute over the broadcasting system however causes the cabinet to fall in 1965. 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... In politics, right-wing, the political right, or simply the right, are terms which refer, with no particular precision, to the segment of the political spectrum in opposition to left-wing politics. ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Publieke Omroeps logo Publieke Omroep is the Dutch broadcasting company that is responsible for the Dutch TV Channels Nederland 1, Nederland 2 & Nederland 3. ... 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link goes to calendar). ...

1965-1980

The period 1965-1980 is period of decline, crisis and dissent for the KVP. Without elections the KVP, the ARP and the PvdA, form the cabinet-Cals. This short-lived cabinet fell in one of the first televised parliamentary debates in Dutch history: the Night of Schmelzer's. In this debate Schmelzer, the KVP-leader, showed himself a master of political intrigue, much to disdain of many Catholics. The share of votes for the KVP began to decline after 1966, because of depillarisation and secularisation: There were less Catholics and Catholics no longer supported a Catholic parties. In the following elections, the KVP-leadership declared that they wanted to continue cooperation with the protestant ARP and CHU. Cooperation with the PvdA was much less important. This led to unrest under young and leftwing KVP supporters. After the elections this promise was upheld and the KVP leads a cabinet with its old partners. This cabinet was headed by the former KVP minister of defence de Jong. After much debate a group of prominent party members broke away from the KVP in 1968 to form the Political Party of Radicals (PPR). The party became a close partner of the PvdA. Although the coalition lost the 1971 elections a new centre-right cabinet was formed with dissenters of the PvdA, united in DS'70. This is the first cabinet since 1958 which was not headed by a Catholic, but the KVP was still the leading force in the cabinet. The cabinet fell in 1972 because of internal problems of the junior partner, DS'70. In the subsequent elections the KVP lost so many seats that it was forced to cooperate even more with the protestant ARP and CHU. Ideas to form a broad Christian-Democratic party, like the German CDU were brought into practice. In 1974 the three parties form a federation, called Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). In 1980 the three parties officially dissolved themselves into it. Although the KVP did not officially support the cabinet several prominent party-members including future CDA prime minster Dries van Agt, joined the cabinet-Den Uyl that was formed after the 1972 elections. This cabinet was characterized as a fighting cabinet and fell just before the 1977 elections. 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link goes to calendar) // Events January January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa ousts president David Dacko and takes over the Central African Republic. ... Pillarisation is a term used to describe the way the Dutch and Belgians used to deal with their multicultural societies. ... This article concerns secularity, that is, being secular, in various senses. ... In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... The Political Party of Radicals (PPR) was dutch leftwing political party. ... 1971 (MCMLXXI) is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar). ... 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year that started on a Saturday. ... This article needs cleanup. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ... The Christen-Democratisch Appèl (CDA, Christian Democratic Appeal) is a political party of the Netherlands that was established in 1980. ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... Prime Minister of the Netherlands Andreas Antonius Maria Dries van Agt (born February 2, 1931) is a Dutch politician, the prime minister of the Netherlands from 1977 until 1982, as a member of the Christian Democratic CDA party. ... The Netherlands cabinet Den Uyl was a left-wing coalition of PvdA, PPR, D66, KVP and ARP. The last two political parties were actually right-wing, but left-wing elements within these parties supported cabinet den Uyl to create a left-wing majority. ... 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year that started on a Saturday. ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ...

The Catholics within the KVP still constitute a powerful group within the CDA.

Ideology

The KVP was a Christian-democratic party, which based itself on the Bible and Catholic Dogma. The Bible (sometimes The Book, Good Book, Word of God, The Word, or Scripture), from Greek (τα) βιβλια, (ta) biblia, (the) books, is the classical name for the Hebrew Bible of Judaism or the combination of the Old Testament and New Testament of Christianity (The Bible actually refers to at least two... Dogma (the plural is either dogmata or dogmas) is belief or doctrine held by a religion or any kind of organisation to be authoritative and not to be disputed or doubted. ...

As such it was proponent of a mixed economy: A strong welfare state should be combined with a free market, with a corporatist organisation. Unions and employers' organisations were to negotiate on wages in a council and should make legislation for some economic sectors on themselves, without government intervention, in so called Productschappen. A mixed economy is an economy that combines capitalism and socialism [1]. Some sources prefer the use of command economy over socialism in defining a mixed economy (see external links below). ... There are three main interpretations of the idea of a welfare state: the provision of welfare services by the state. ... A free market is an idealized market, where all economic decisions and actions by individuals regarding transfer of money, goods, and services are voluntary, and are therefore devoid of coercion and theft (some definitions of coercion are inclusive of theft). Colloquially and loosely, a free market economy is an economy... Historically, corporatism or corporativism (Italian corporativismo) is a political system in which legislative power is given to civic assemblies that represent economic, industrial, agrarian, and professional groups. ... Union generally means a organization of formed to conduct an activity. ... A wage is the amount of money paid for some specified quantity of labour. ...

The state should however watch over the morality of the people: divorce should be limited, recreation should be moral (for instance different swimming hours for women and men) and the family should be preserved. Families were to be helped by fiscal policies, such as the "kinderbijslag", support by the government, by the newly set up Ministry of Culture, Recreation and Welfare, and the possibility to buy their own home. Divorce or dissolution of marriage is the ending of a marriage before the death of either spouse, which can be contrasted with an annulment which is a declaration that a marriage is void, though the effects of marriage may be recognized in such unions, such as spousal support, child custody... A family of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 1997 A family is a domestic group of people, or a number of domestic groups, typically affiliated by birth or marriage, or by comparable legal relationships including domestic partnership, adoption, surname and in some cases ownership (as was the case in the Roman... A tax is an involuntary fee paid by individuals or businesses to a government. ...

Internationally, the KVP was a staunch proponent of European integration and cooperation with the NATO. The party sought the middle ground in the issue of decolonization: Indonesia and Surinam should be independent countries within a Dutch Commonwealth. Main article: History of the European Union Attempts to unite the disparate nations of Europe precede the modern nation states; they have occurred repeatedly throughout the history of Europe. ... The NATO flag NATO 2002 Summit in Prague The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), sometimes called North Atlantic Alliance, Atlantic Alliance or the Western Alliance, is an international organisation for defence collaboration established in 1949, in support of the North Atlantic Treaty signed in Washington, D.C., on April 4... // Definition and linguistics The original phrase common wealth or the common weal is a calque translation of the Latin term res publica (public matters), from which the word republic comes, which was itself used as a synonym for the greek politeia as well as for the republican (i. ...

Links to other organization

The KVP had an own youth organisation, the KVPJG (Youth Groups within the KVP) and a scientific foundation: the Centre for Political Formation.

The KVP had close links to many other Catholic institutions such as the Roman-Catholic Church and together they formed the Catholic pillar. These organisations included the Catholic Labour Union NKV, the Catholic Employers Organisation KNOV, the Catholic Farmers' Organisation KNBLTB, Catholic Hospitals united in the Jellow-White Cross and Catholic Schools. The Catholic Broadcasting Association KRO and the Catholic Paper De Volkskrant were the voices of the KVP. The Catholic Church, (also known as the Roman Catholic Church), is the Christian Church led by the Pope, currently Benedict XVI, and whose adherents constitute almost half of all Christians worldwide. ... Pillarization is a term used to describe the way their dutch and belgians dealt with the multicultural societies. ... De Volkskrant is a Dutch newspaper. ...

Important Figures

Romme, party leader 1946-1961

Beel, minister-president 1946-1948, 1958-1959 Prime Minister of the Netherlands Louis Joseph Maria Beel (April 12, 1902 - February 11, 1977) was Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1946 to 1948 and again from 1958 to 1959. ...

Klompé, minister of Culture, Recreation and Welfare, the first female minister 1956-1963; 1966-1971

Luns, minister of foreign affairs 1952-1971 Joseph Antoine Marie Hubert Luns ( August 28, 1911 - July 18, 2002) was a Dutch politician and former NATO secretary-general. ...

Schmelzer, party-leader 1963-1971

Van Agt, minister of justice 1971-1977 Prime Minister of the Netherlands Andreas Antonius Maria Dries van Agt (born February 2, 1931) is a Dutch politician, the prime minister of the Netherlands from 1977 until 1982, as a member of the Christian Democratic CDA party. ...

Electorate

The KVP was supported by Catholics of classes. Its strength was in the Catholic south of the Netherlands: Brabant and Limburg, where it often held more than 90% of vote. Class ASCII art NFO header by a!b. ... North Brabant (Dutch: Noord-Brabant) is a province of the Netherlands, located in the south of the country, bordered by Belgium in the south, the Meuse River (Maas) in the north, Limburg in the east and Zeeland in the west. ... Limburg is the name of two different adjoining provinces: Limburg (Netherlands) in the south of the Netherlands, its capital is Maastricht. ...