Pacification of 1917

The Pacification of 1917 was a political agreement between liberals and socialists on the left and some Christian parties on the right in the Netherlands, ending both the suffrage issue and the school struggle.

Although led by the liberal professor Jacques Oppenheim, it included members from all parliamentary parties and movements of the time, seeking a compromise that could rely on broad support.

The major parties, all of which had agreed to the terms of the Pacification, did not field candidates against incumbent opponents in order to assure that the elected parliament would show the same level of support as the retiring one.

Candidates challenging incumbents were mostly associated with the Anti-Constitution Committee, which opposed the prospective constitutional amendments, as well as members of the Peasants' League and the Christian Social Party.

The end of the school struggle and the restructuring of the political spectrum paved the way for cooperation between Christian democrats and liberals, as would happen in the second Colijn cabinet.

[2] Another consequence of the Pacification was the development of consociationalism, manifesting itself as pillarisation, whereby Dutch politics and society were sharply divided into four "pillars" (Protestant, Catholic, liberal and socialist), each of which had a full set of its own social organisations, including churches (for the religious pillars), political parties, schools, universities, labour unions, sport clubs, youth clubs and newspapers.