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| | The end of consensus politics in the Netherlands Part III: The historical roots of consensus politics |
 | | In the nineteenth century, this tradition was consciously continued in order to safeguard the domination of the bourgeoisie against the working class, which emerged with industrialisation, and the revolutionary movement it threatened to spawn. |
 | | In 1848, farsighted middle-class politicians, led by the liberal Johan Rudolf Thorbecke, prevented the spread to the Netherlands of the revolutionary uprisings that had broken out all over Europe by implementing the first political reforms towards parliamentary democracy. |
 | | In 1848, Thorbecke, then prime minister and author of the parliamentary constitution, considered it very important to disassociate himself from neighbouring Prussia, its militarism and police-state tradition, at least when it came to home rule in the Netherlands. |
| www.wsws.org /articles/2002/aug2002/neth-a26.shtml (1703 words) |
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