Pacification of 1917

The Pacification of 1917 is an event in Dutch politics. In 1917 the constitution was changed by the extra-parliamentary cabinet led by Pieter Cort van der Linden in order to resolve the antithesis between religious and secular parties. It implemented both universal suffrage, proportional representation and equal funding for all schools both public (secular) and private (religious).

The result was to largely freeze in place the "pillarization" whereby Dutch politics and society (but not economics) was sharply divided by religion. Everyone was part of a pillar (zuil) based on religion (Protestant, Catholic, secular-liberal, secular-socialist). Each pillar had a full set of its own social organizations, including churches (for the religious pillars), political parties, schools, universities, labor unions, sport clubs, youth clubs, and newspapers.

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