Nuclear Power and Politics in the Netherlands

Abstract

Nuclear power accounts for a low share only of electricity generation in the Netherlands. Plans for further expansion came to a halt due to a high-intensity nuclear energy debate and the Chernobyl accident. After a short resurgence in the early 2000s, political parties and voters shifted towards the anti-nuclear position after the Fukushima disaster. The chapter underlines the importance of path dependency in energy policy and concludes that government policies in consensus democracies with many political parties and coalition government are relatively unresponsive to public opinion and changes in the electoral performance of parties, because there is continuity in parts of the government’s composition in most cases.