ABSTRACT
This chapter documents a national political culture of segmented pluralism or verzuiling, which originates in the peaceful coexistence between sovereign religious communities within the same state. In spite of the structural 'de-pillarisation' of contemporary Dutch society and national institutions, it examines how Dutch pluralism has been successfully reinvented to promote economic success, or to achieve immigrant integration. Lijphart saw the Dutch population in the high era of accommodation as thoroughly divided along cultural and class lines. Since his initial efforts to define the Dutch practice of politics as consociationalism, Lijphart has generalised the notion and tried to assess its applicability in a large number of cases. The Second World War is an episode that is difficult to assess in its longterm effects on Dutch society. It seems to have added an element of ethnic identity to Dutch civic identity by stressing the idea of common suffering at the hands of the German oppressor.
