A testimonial party () is a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

that focuses on its principles, instead of adapting them to local or temporal issues in the pursuit of

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

participation.

In the Netherlands

It is a peculiar phenomenon in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, because of the Dutch system of

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

, in which any party that has over 0.66% of the vote can enter the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

. A typical House of Representatives has 10 or more factions represented. With such a large number of parties, it is all but impossible for one party to win the 76 seats needed for a majority in its own right. As a result, most Dutch political parties will negotiate and compromise to form a coalition government. Testimonial parties will not compromise; this, combined with the fact that they are usually small parties, makes their participation in a coalition government extremely unlikely. Examples of parties that have referred to themselves as "testimonial" include the orthodox Protestant

Reformed Political Party The Reformed Political Party ( , SGP) is a conservative Reformed ChristianThese sources describe the SGP as a Calvinist (Reformed Christian) political party: * * * * political party in the Netherlands. The SGP is the oldest political party in the ...

(SGP) and the

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have Moral patienthood, moral worth independent of their Utilitarianism, utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as ...

-advocating

Party for the Animals The Party for the Animals ( , PvdD) is a List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands. Among its main goals are animal rights and animal welfare. The PvdD was founded in 2002 as a single-issue party for animal ...

. In contrast, the term 'program party' is used for parties oriented toward participation in coalitions.

In other countries

*The Christian Heritage Party of New Zealand and the

Christian Heritage Party of Canada The Christian Heritage Party of Canada (), also known as CHP Canada, is a Canadian federal political party that is part of the Christian right. Founded in 1987, it was the brainchild of two couples in British Columbia, namely Bill and Heathe ...

, many members of which had Dutch ancestry, may have been a version of a 'testimonial party' effectively exported to a foreign context. *The

Communist Party of Greece The Communist Party of Greece (, ΚΚΕ; ''Kommounistikó Kómma Elládas'', KKE) is a Marxist–Leninist political party in Greece. It was founded in 1918 as the Socialist Workers' Party of Greece (SEKE) and adopted its current name in Novem ...

refuses to join any coalition like in May 2012 or January 2015. *Many

Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...

parties, such as the Workers' Party of Uruguay, usually obtain less than 1000 votes in every election.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Testimonial Party Political terminology Proportional representation electoral systems

In the Netherlands

In other countries

See also

References