The Anti-Revolutionary Party (, ARP) was a Protestant conservative and Christian democratic political party in the Netherlands between 1879 and 1980.
The ARP was founded in 1879 by Abraham Kuyper, a neo-Calvinist theologian and minister. Under his leadership, the party sought to represent the Orthodox Reformed "small folks" (kleine luyden) and obtain equal funding for religious schools. In the 1880s, they achieved electoral success and became a major political force. Alongside the Catholics, they served three terms in government between 1888 and 1918. In 1898, a number of conservative members split from the party over its support for the extension of suffrage, and eventually form the Christian Historical Union (CHU). In the interwar period, the ARP was continuously in government, most prominently under the leadership of Kuyper's successor Hendrikus Colijn, who served as prime minister between 1925 and 1926, and again between 1933 and 1939.
In the Postwar era, the ARP was led by Jan Schouten. The party was relegated to the opposition benches by the Roman/Red coalition in 1946, but rejoined the government in 1952. In response to electoral decline in the 1960s and early 1970s, the ARP adopted a more progressive, "radical evangelical" image, while also seeking closer cooperation with the Catholic People's Party (KVP) and the CHU, with the three parties merging to form the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) in 1980.
History
History before 1879
In the mid-19th century, the historian Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer laid the foundations of an Orthodox Reformed body of political thought. The Protestant nature of the Dutch nation occupied a central role in this body of thought, and Groen and his followers were consequently fiercely anti-Catholic; in 1853, they joined the in response to the reestablishment of the episcopal hierarchy in the Netherlands. They also opposed the modern ideas of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, including popular sovereignty, liberalism and rationalism. As such, they adopted the label antirevolutionary.
Groen had been the sole antirevolutionary in the House of Representatives since 1840, but the first direct election in 1848 saw the election of a few other antirevolutionaries. Under Groen's leadership, they formed a distinct parliamentary grouping. Despite its small size, often comprising no more than three or four members, its principled approach often made it the most important opponent of the liberals. Despite its distinct identity in parliament, however, there was much overlap between antirevolutionaries and the larger conservative movement in electoral politics. The two groups were united in their sympathy for Christian education, their concern about the direction of the Dutch Reformed Church and their love for the royal house. Many Orthodox Reformed voters voted for conservative candidates, and antirevolutionaries were generally elected only where the conservatives refrained from fielding a candidate.
This changed in the late 1860s, when the Van Zuylen van Nijevelt cabinet sought to bring about an anti-liberal coalition consisting of conservatives, antirevolutionaries and Catholics, and offered the latter two a new school act. The liberal majority in the House of Representatives formed a united front, however, and two snap elections failed to break their majority, leading the cabinet to resign in 1868. This conflict led to a polarisation between conservatives and liberals which resounded in electoral politics. Conservatives portrayed the liberals as radical republicans, while liberals decried the conservatives for their rapprochement with the Catholics. Many Catholic voters in Protestant-majority districts voted for conservative candidates, while Protestant voters shifted their support to liberal candidates.
The disappointment of the Van Zuylen van Nijevelt cabinet and the inability of the antirevolutionaries to benefit from the resulting realignment led Groen to abandon politics. This left the antirevolutionaries without a leader until the leadership was picked up by the young Dutch Reformed theologian Abraham Kuyper. Kuyper, with whom Groen van Prinsterer had begun to correspond in 1864, founded the antirevolutionary newspaper De Standaard in 1872, and was elected to the House of Representatives in 1874. He is credited with the electoral success of the antirevolutionaries in the 1870s, with their parliamentary group growing from around five members in 1868 to thirteen in 1875.
Founding and growth, 1879–1888
On 3 April 1879, Abraham Kuyper founded the ARP as the first nationally organised political party in the Netherlands. An 1878 petition for equal payment for religious schools became one of the catalysts for the foundation of the political movement. In 1877, Kuyper had already written "Our Programme" in which the political ideals of the ARP were written down. Around the ARP the separate Protestant society began to grow: in addition to De Standaard, many Protestant schools were founded, and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam was established as a Protestant university in 1880. Kuyper led the 1886 Dutch Reformed Church split, which resulted in the establishment of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands in 1892.
While Kuyper shared Groen's anti-Catholic sentiment, the struggle for the equal funding of religious schools led him to pursue a strategic alliance with the Catholics, with whom the Anti-Revolutionaries shared this goal. This political strategy was later provided a theoretical justification in the form of Antithesis, the notion that the divide between secular and confessional parties was the primary cleavage along which political conflict revolved, superseding the rivalry between Protestants and Catholics. The approach was favourably received by Herman Schaepman, leader of the Catholics in the House of Representatives.
The strategic alliance with the Catholics, which became known as the Coalition, resulted in further electoral success in the 1880s. In 1879, thirteen antirevolutionaries were among the hundred members of the House of Representatives, although not all were members of the ARP. During the period between 1879 and 1883, their numbers grew slowly, peaking at 19. After the 1884 election they had 21 members of parliament. In 1886 they won their first seat in the Senate.
Antithesis, 1888–1917 In the 1888 election, the ARP won 31.4% of the vote and 27 seats. A confessional cabinet was formed led by the anti-revolutionary Aeneas Mackay Jr.; it combined anti-revolutionary and Catholic ministers, joined by two conservative independents. Because the liberals still controlled the Senate, many of the cabinet's proposals met resistance there and the cabinet fell before the end of its four-year term.
In the 1891 election, the ARP lost 2% of its votes, but six of its seats. The confessional parties also lost their majority. A liberal cabinet, led by Van Tienhoven was formed. It proposed drastic changes to the census, which would result practically in universal male suffrage, proposed by minister Tak. The ARP was divided on the issue: Kuyper and a majority of the parliamentary party voted in favour of the law, while Alexander de Savornin Lohman vehemently opposed it. Kuyper had tactical reasons to support enlarged franchise – the 'kleine luyden' (middle class) who would be allowed to vote often supported the ARP. De Savorin-Lohman opposed the law because it would imply some form of popular sovereignty instead of divine sovereignty. In 1894, this resulted in a split between the ARP and the group around De Savorin-Lohman. Party discipline also played a role in the conflict between Kuyper and De Savorin-Lohman: Kuyper, the party leader, favoured strong party discipline, while De Savorin Lohman opposed strong parties. The split results in the foundation of the Free Anti Revolutionary Party in 1898, which would become the Christian Historical Union in 1904. With De Savorin-Lohman a group of prominent party politicians left the party, including many of its aristocratic members (who like De Savorin-Lohman have double names). The CHU continued its opposition against universal suffrage and was more anti-papist than the ARP.
In the 1894 election, the ARP lost almost half of its vote and six of its twenty-one seats. The Catholics broke their alliance with the ARP and supported a conservative cabinet. In the 1897 election, the ARP won back some ground: it was supported by 26% of the electorate and won seventeen seats. The group around De Savorin Lohman, won 11% of the vote and six seats. A liberal cabinet was formed and the ARP was confined to opposition.
In 1901, the ARP won a decisive victory. It won 27.4% of the vote and 23 seats. A cabinet was formed out of the ARP, the Catholics and the group around De Savorin-Lohman, now called the Christian Historical Party. The cabinet was led by Kuyper, being the first person to formally lead the cabinet for four years. It was characterised by Kuypers' authoritarian leadership. This can best be seen by the railway strike of 1903, in which Kuyper showed no mercy to the strikers and instead pushed several particularly harsh anti-strike laws through parliament. After the Senate, where there was a liberal majority, rejected Kuypers' law on higher education, which sought to bring equal titles for alumni of the Free University, which Kuyper himself founded, Kuyper called for new elections for the Senate. With a confessional majority in the Senate, the law was pushed through.
In the 1905 election, the ARP lost only 3% of the vote, but eight seats, although it was able to strengthen its position in the Senate. Kuyper, the party's leader, lost his own seat in Amsterdam to a progressive liberal. Theo Heemskerk led the anti-revolutionary parliamentary party. A minority liberal cabinet was formed. Former anti-revolutionary MP Staalman left ARP and founded the Christian Democratic Party, which later became the Christian Democratic Union, which would play a minor role in the interbellum political landscape.
In 1908, Kuyper returned to the House of Representatives. After a crisis in the liberal cabinet Theo Heemskerk was given the chance to form a new cabinet. A minority confessional cabinet was formed. In the 1909 election the ARP won 3% of vote and twenty-five seats. The Heemskerk cabinet continues.
In 1912, Kuyper left national politics because of health reasons, and in 1913, he was elected to the Senate. In the 1913 election, the ARP lost 6% of the votes. The party lost more than half of its seats, leaving them with 11 seats overall. Another minority liberal cabinet was formed. The leadership of the ARP lay in the hands of less prominent politicians. Although a relatively small opposition party, the ARP played an important role in Dutch politics. The liberal minority cabinet, led by Cort van der Linden sought to resolve two important issues in Dutch politics: the conflict over the equalisation of payment for religious schools and universal suffrage. In the constitution change of 1917 both items were resolved. The ARP was given equal payment for religious schools, but it had to accept women's suffrage and proportional representation.
Interwar period and World War II, 1917–1945