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8 J.L. Religion & St. 1 (2020)

handle is hein.journals/jlrs8 and id is 1 raw text is: JOURNAL OF LAW, RELIGION AND STATE BRILL 8 (2020) 1-33 4 0 N IJ H O F F brill.com/jlrs Social Change and the Accommodation of Religious Minorities in the Netherlands New Diversity and Its Implications for Constitutional Rights and Principles Wibren van der Burg Professor of Legal Philosophy and Jurisprudence, Erasmus School of Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands vanderburg@law eurnl Wouter de Been wh j.debeen@gmaiLcom Abstract The toleration of religious minorities is changing in the Netherlands. In this paper we analyze three recent developments in Dutch society that are important for under- standing the way the Dutch regime of religious tolerance is adjusting to 21st century circumstances. The first one concerns the growing homogenization of Dutch society and the emergence of a secular and liberal majority. The second is the dominance in policy and public debate of a Protestant conception of what religion amounts to. The third development is the fragmentation of religion and its simultaneous combination into new networks and groups made possible by new information and communication technologies. These developments pose challenges to constitutional rights and prin- ciples. There are no simple solutions to these challenges, but the Dutch tradition of consociationalism, as a liberal tradition in its own right, may provide some valuable perspectives. Keywords secularization - diversity - consociationalism - the Netherlands - liberalism - republicanism - individualization - aggregation © WIBRENVANDERBURGANDWOUTERDE BEEN, 2020 I DOI:10.1163/22124810-00801002 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.