CAN A MINORITY RETAIN ITS IDENTITY IN LAW?pillars, but others, too: it was pivotal in the emancipation of workers, women, and homo-
sexuals and to their aspirations to participate fully in Dutch society.
Major Changes
In the 1960s, history took a turn that has an important bearing on a number of matters
that play a role today:
- The system of denominational or ideological pillars began to crumble. Now, in
2005, it can be regarded as a thing of the past. The end of this system of pillars also
brought an end to a particular model of leadership. The leaders of the denominational or
ideological pillars enjoyed the confidence of the members to settle disputes. No good
alternative to this system has yet been found. In an individualized society in which every-
one wants to ‘‘do his or her own thing,’’ leadership is a complicated issue. - Almost at the same time, the Netherlands was confronted, for the first time in its
modern history, with a substantial wave of immigration. First from Italy, Spain, Portugal,
and Yugoslavia; later from Morocco and Turkey; and, since the late 1970s, from all over
the world. Today, the populations of Amsterdam and of Rotterdam comprise over 170
nationalities.
Since the 1970s, Dutch society has endeavored to apply the principle of equality
strictly to all aspects of life. Whereas inequality was formerly a fact of life that was taken
for granted, major differences in our society—between men and women, between social
classes, between experts and lay people, between the different political parties, and so
forth—have become blurred. Or perhaps I should say these differences have become less
explicit. And hence, to quote Piet de Rooij again, much experience of dealing with major
differences has been lost.
All of this has happened within a national and international context of ongoing indi-
vidualization, democratization, globalization, privatization, smaller government, and, last
but not least, secularization.^2 In my Cleveringa speech of 2002, I described the conse-
quences of these five major developments for our society. At the time, I said that these
are developments that interact with one another, reinforce each other’s consequences,
and have gradually led to a position in which people face one another as individuals and
as strangers. The report of the Social and Cultural Planning Office entitled ‘‘The Social
State of the Netherlands 2005’’ mentions another new development in the Netherlands,
namely, the frequent occurrence of social and emotional loneliness as a result of individu-
alization, divorce or the loss of a partner in some other way. More and more people feel
that they stand alone in a society that is in a state of flux, that offers people little certainty,
and that comes across as very menacing.
These effects are exacerbated by tensions in the international arena—tensions of
which we are becoming increasingly aware and which have a major influence on us. I am
not the first to note that the terrorist attacks by the fundamentalist Muslim organization
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