No longer going steady, but playing the field: trade unions and the decline of social democracy

Parties on the centre-left often enjoy a special relationship with trade unions, but recent electoral losses for social democratic parties may limit the ability of unions to influence public policy. Simon Otjes and Anne Rasmussen examine how trade union-party relationships in the Netherlands might be affected by these developments. They argue that the losses suffered by the Social Democrats in the 2017 Dutch elections are unlikely to fundamentally weaken the role of Dutch trade unions in policy-making. Unions enjoy a direct connection to policy-making independent of government composition, and they hold ties to parties across the political spectrum due to the specific trade union traditions present in the country.