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8 J.L. Religion & St. 1 (2020)

handle is hein.journals/jlrs8 and id is 1 raw text is: JOURNAL OF LAW, RELIGION AND STATE
BRILL                        8 (2020) 1-33                     4   0
N IJ H O F F                                                     brill.com/jlrs
Social Change and the Accommodation of Religious
Minorities in the Netherlands
New Diversity and Its Implications for Constitutional Rights and Principles
Wibren van der Burg
Professor of Legal Philosophy and Jurisprudence, Erasmus School of Law,
Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
vanderburg@law eurnl
Wouter de Been
wh j.debeen@gmaiLcom
Abstract
The toleration of religious minorities is changing in the Netherlands. In this paper we
analyze three recent developments in Dutch society that are important for under-
standing the way the Dutch regime of religious tolerance is adjusting to 21st century
circumstances. The first one concerns the growing homogenization of Dutch society
and the emergence of a secular and liberal majority. The second is the dominance in
policy and public debate of a Protestant conception of what religion amounts to. The
third development is the fragmentation of religion and its simultaneous combination
into new networks and groups made possible by new information and communication
technologies. These developments pose challenges to constitutional rights and prin-
ciples. There are no simple solutions to these challenges, but the Dutch tradition of
consociationalism, as a liberal tradition in its own right, may provide some valuable
perspectives.
Keywords
secularization - diversity - consociationalism - the Netherlands - liberalism -
republicanism - individualization - aggregation

© WIBRENVANDERBURGANDWOUTERDE BEEN, 2020 I DOI:10.1163/22124810-00801002
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

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