The Political Elite, Self-Interest and Democratization: The case of the Netherlands, 1870-1920

This dissertation consists of various studies that investigate the influence of political elites' incentives on their decision-making. I investigate the relationship between politicians and the pursuit of self-interest by focusing on arguably the most obvious proxy for self-interest: politicians' personal wealth. In chapter 2, I introduce the setting for the remainder of the dissertation: the Dutch political elite in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. This period saw a radical economic, but also political change. This period arguably represents the country's transition from 'extr... Mehr ...