The General League of Roman Catholic Electoral Associations[1] (Dutch: Algemeene Bond van Roomsch-Katholieke Kiesverenigingen), informally called the General League (Dutch: Algemeene Bond), was a Catholic political party in the Netherlands.
Catholics supported several liberal governments but were divided between two groups: those for the progressive Herman Schaepman and those for the conservative Bernardus Marie Bahlmann.
The progressives favoured a corporatist economy and extension of suffrage, but the conservatives, who represented business interests, opposed both.
Finally, on 15 October 1904, the General League was founded as a federation of district and provincial Catholic electoral associations and parliamentarians.
Between 1913 and 1918, the party was out of power by a liberal minority cabinet, which was preparing an important constitutional revision to solve the two most pressing political issues of the past three decades: suffrage and equal financing for religious schools.
In the 1918 general election, the first held under proportional representation, the League became the largest party, and its alliance with the ARP and CHU won a considerable majority.
For the first time in Dutch political history, a Catholic, Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck, became Prime Minister.
In 1919, Henri van Groenendael was removed from the party ranks due to his sympathy for the Limburgurgish separatist movement.
In 1923, 10 Catholic MPs caused the fall of the second Ruijs de Beerenbrouck cabinet by voting against the budget of the Ministry for the Navy.
Now, the socialist and liberal opposition supported the proposal as well, which was unacceptable for the Catholic ministers, and their departure caused the cabinet to fall.
As a Catholic social party, it was a staunch proponent of a corporatist economy, where employers' organisations, unions, and the state work together for the common good.
It supported the implementation of a system of social security, protection to develop national industry, and the improvement of the position of workers.
The General League was allied to the Protestant Anti-Revolutionary Party and Christian Historical Union, in alliance called the Coalition.