Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy
Encyclopedia
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
: Nederlands Instituut voor Meerpartijendemocratie) is a democracy assistance organisation of political parties in the Netherlands for political parties in young democracies
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
. NIMD supports joint initiatives of political parties to improve the functioning of multi-party
Multi-party system
A multi-party system is a system in which multiple political parties have the capacity to gain control of government separately or in coalition, e.g.The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition in the United Kingdom formed in 2010. The effective number of parties in a multi-party system is normally...
democracies abroad.
Founded in 2000 by seven parties across the political spectrum (CDA
Christian Democratic Appeal
The Christian Democratic Appeal is a centre-right Dutch Christian democratic political party. It suffered severe losses in the 2010 elections and fell from the first to the fourth place...
, PvdA, VVD, Groenlinks, Democrats 66
Democrats 66
Democrats 66 is a progressive and social-liberal political party in the Netherlands. D66 was formed in 1966 by a group of politically unaligned, young intellectuals, led by journalist Hans van Mierlo. The party's main objective was to democratise the political system; it proposed to create an...
, Christen Unie and SGP
Reformed Political Party
The Reformed Political Party is an orthodox Protestant Dutch political party. The term Reformed is not a reference to political reform, but is a synonym for Calvinist. The SGP is the oldest political party in the Netherlands in its current form, and for its entire existence has been in opposition...
), NIMD currently works with more than 150 political parties from 16 countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe.