`Lately, things just don't seem the same': external shocks, party change and the adaptation of the Dutch Christian Democrats during ‘Purple Hague’ 1994-8

Using the Harmel and Janda model of external shocks and party change, this article explores the reaction of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) to its unprecedented exile in opposition after 1994, focusing on the period before the 1998 parliamentary election. As an office-seeker par excellence forced into an alien environment, the CDA provides an ideal test-case for investigating how a party adapts in such circumstances. The article argues that various dimensions of party change can be identified following 1994, but that in contrast to developments in party leadership, internal factional balance, strategy and organization, programmatic change was less extensive. It is argued that the explanation for this lies in the nature of the Dutch party system, the history of the CDA and the party’s secondary yet still important goal of ideology.