Prejudice and Politics in the Netherlands

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The predicaments of post-colonialism launched a wave of immigrants across Europe; the collapse of communism has swollen it. These new "outsiders" raise a host of problems for governments across Europe. That a number of these governments and societies are themselves under economic and political stress, for reasons independent of or only marginally related to the arrival of outside groups, only aggravates the problem. Throughout Western Europe there is an unmistakable anger toward outsiders, sparking anti-migrant violence and swelling the popular appeal of new parties parading under quasi-fascist banners and draping themselves in racist, xenophobic sentiments. This proposal seeks funding to continue an on-going collaborative research program on the consequences of prejudice for intergroup conflict. The research will be conducted in the Netherlands and costs will be shared with European colleagues. The Netherlands offers an important site for this research because of, on the one hand, its egalitarian political culture and, on the other hand, its history of colonialism. Computer assisted experimental surveys of Dutch citizens will be used to gauge the possibilities for theoretical melding of situational perspectives on group conflict with dispositional perspectives. This project extends a series of studies conducted both in the United States and in Italy by the principal investigator and his European collaborators. * * *