Cultural Corporatism and the COC: Gay and Lesbian Social Movement Advocacy in the Netherlands and Dutch Political Culture, 1986-1994

Debates on gay and lesbian advocacy in the Netherlands have often revolved around the role of the political culture of pillarisation in facilitating or hindering the gay and lesbian (GL) social movement. Pillarisation ended, however, just as the GL movement was beginning to gain momentum. In this article, gay and lesbian advocacy is examined from 1986-1994, during which the government engaged in designing a national policy to combat anti-homosexual discrimination. After describing the transition from a political cultural of pillarisation to one of corporatism, I will investigate the extent to which corporatism was extended to the gay and lesbian social movement and structured relations between the government and the gay and lesbian social movement. Last, I will examine the ways in which a political culture of corporatism affected gay and lesbian advocacy. In extending corporatism to the GL social movement, the government created strong partners with whom policy could be negotiated and developed. Incorporation empowered some GL SMOs and secured their ‘place at the table’. Once incorporated into the formal political arena, the SMOs were able to achieve a number of policy advancements, but they also had to compete with much stronger players. Despite the strong position of some GL SMOs, and the COC in particular, some political party opposition to the GL movement resulted in the GL movement’s failure to achieve its most central goal.