On 21 February, the election programmes of ten Dutch political parties were screened against the perspective of the commons. In a public meeting, about twenty people participated in this daunting task. Some of the political parties clearly overlook the commons completely, while others do offer something of an integral vision. But in the end, a clear political strategy in favour of the commons was not found in any of the election programmes.
The meeting was held by co-initator of the 'Open Planbureau', Socrates Schouten, to look further than just the financial and economical parameters like unemployment, growth and the gross national product. From the commons perspective, the emphasis lies on nature, shared spaces and goods, open-source technology, knowledge sharing, collaborative organisation and solidarity — to complement the calculations made by the official planning bureau of the government.
More information about this topic is available in the Dutch version of this news item. Soon, the results of the screening will be published, for the benefit of all voters at the national elections of 15 March 2017.
