Pioneering marriage for same-sex couples in the Netherlands

ABSTRACT

Why did the Netherlands become the first country to allow same-sex couples to marry? I argue that in addition to social and political factors that have been well-highlighted in the literature, the desire of Dutch activists and policy élites to burnish their international reputation as a social policy and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights pioneer played a critical role in motivating the government to adopt this controversial policy. In making this argument, the article addresses the often neglected topic of policy invention. I utilize the concept of regional policy community drawn from federalism studies to illustrate that such communities do not just facilitate the diffusion of new innovations across its constituent states, but they can also inspire pioneering states to experiment with new policy models in the first place.

KEY WORDS:

• Laboratory federalism
• morality politics
• Netherlands
• policy invention
• policy pioneers
• same-sex marriage

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Jack Amoureux, Joseph O'Mahoney, Enze Han, David Paternotte, Eva-Maria Truedinger, Achim Hildebrandt, Patrick Bernhagen, Philp Habel, Karen Wright, Inaki Sagarzazu, the participants of the Glasgow Comparative Politics cluster and the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which have made this a far better article. The remaining faults are all my own.

Notes on Contributor

Kelly Kollman is senior lecturer in politics at the University of Glasgow. Address for correspondence: Adam Smith Building, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8RT.

Notes

1. On 20 July 2015, the European Court of Human Rights in the Oliara and Others vs Italy case condemned Italy for failing to recognize same-sex couples in law.

2. US federalism scholars distinguish between policy innovation and invention. The former occurs when a state adopts a policy that is new to it, and the latter occurs when a state adopts a policy that is new to the system. This article focuses on invention. The factors that influence the early adoption of policy should also influence states’ propensity to invent. 

3. This dynamic can be driven by rational or social learning. Pioneers may produce empirical evidence about policies that successfully address common problems (rational learning) or they may set an example of how successful states should act (social learning) (Berry and Berry 2014).

4. The percentage of people that agreed homosexuality ‘is never justified’ went from 13 per cent in 1990 to 7 per cent in 1999 (EVS 2011).

5. The Nordic countries also have reputations as normative middle powers. Because Nordic LGBT activists had campaigned for RPs in the 1990s, it was difficult for them to argue for the necessity of marriage until it became an international norm.

6. The Netherlands and Sweden extended limited legal recognition to same-sex cohabitants in certain legislation before 1989. This recognition was piecemeal and most scholars do not consider such measures to be fully-fledged SSU laws.

Additional information

Funding

The research on which this article is based was generously funded by a grant from the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland [grant number 61705].