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Marcel van Dam

Dutch politician

Summary

Dutch politician

Field	Value
name	Marcel van Dam
image	Marcel van Dam 1982 (1).jpg
caption	Marcel van Dam in 1982
office	Minister of Housing and Spatial Planning
term_start	11 September 1981
term_end	29 May 1982
primeminister	Dries van Agt
predecessor	Dany Tuijnman (ad interim)
successor	Erwin Nypels
office1	Member of the House of Representatives
term_start1	16 September 1982
term_end1	22 January 1986
term_start2	8 June 1977
term_end2	11 September 1981
office3	State Secretary for Housing and Spatial Planning
term_start3	11 May 1973
term_end3	8 September 1977
alongside3	Jan Schaefer
primeminister3	Joop den Uyl
predecessor3	Werner Buck
successor3	Gerrit Brokx
birthname	Marcel Parcival Arthur van Dam
birth_date
birth_place	Utrecht, Netherlands
party	Labour Party (1966–2003)
otherparty	Catholic People's Party (1956–1966)
spouse
children	2 children
residence	Nunspeet, Netherlands
alma_mater	Utrecht University
(Bachelor of Social Science, Master of Social Science)
occupation	Politician · Sociologist · Researcher · Ombudsman · Journalist · Editor · Author · television producer · Television presenter · Nonprofit director · Media administrator · Political pundit · Activist

|honorific-prefix = (Bachelor of Social Science, Master of Social Science)

Marcel Parcival Arthur van Dam (; born 30 January 1938) is a retired Dutch politician of the Labour Party (PvdA) and journalist.

Van Dam worked as a researcher for the Wiardi Beckman Foundation from April 1967 until September 1969. Van Dam also was active as a political activist and was one of the leaders of the New Left movement in the Netherlands which aimed to steer the Labour Party more to the left. Van Dam worked as a journalist for the VARA from September 1969 until May 1973 as an ombudsman from September 1969 until May 1973 and as an editor from April 1971 until May 1973. After the 1972 general election Van Dam was appointed as State Secretary for Housing and Spatial Planning in the Den Uyl cabinet, taking office on 11 May 1973. The cabinet fell on 22 March 1977 and continued to serve in a demissionary capacity. Van Dam was elected to the House of Representatives in the 1977 general election, taking office on 8 June 1977 but he was still serving in the cabinet and because of dualism customs in the constitutional convention of Dutch politics he could not serve a dual mandate he subsequently resigned as State Secretary on 8 September 1977. After the 1981 general election Van Dam was appointed as Minister of Housing and Spatial Planning in the Van Agt II cabinet, taking office on 11 September 1981. The cabinet fell just seven months into its term on 12 May 1982 and continued to serve in a demissionary capacity until it was replaced by the caretaker Van Agt III cabinet on 29 May 1982. After the 1982 general election Van Dam returned to the House of Representatives, taking office on 16 September 1982.

In December 1985 Van Dam was nominated as chairman of the board of directors of public broadcaster VARA, he resigned from the House of Representatives on 22 January 1986 and was installed as a chairman serving from 10 January 1986 until 30 November 1995. Van Dam remained active in the public sector for the VARA working as a television presenter and television producer for several political programs from January 1996 until January 2005 and occupied numerous seats as a nonprofit director on several boards of directors and supervisory boards (International Institute of Social History, Terre des hommes, International Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Institute for Multiparty Democracy) and as an advocate and activist for social justice, social integration, anti-war movement, multiculturalism, minority groups and housing reformer.

Van Dam is known for his abilities as a debater and negotiator. Following his retirement Van Dam remains active as a political pundit and columnist for the VARA and the de Volkskrant and continues to comment on political affairs.

Early life

Van Dam was born into a Catholic family as one of nine siblings, however during his childhood, both his youngest brother and one of his elder brothers died. During World War II, Van Dam's family had to go into hiding, as a result of his father's refusal to arrest Jews, and his subsequent contribution to the resistance.

In 1956 Van Dam became a member of the KVP and from 1957 he studied law and sociology at Utrecht University. He never completed studies in law, graduating instead as a sociologist. In 1965 he graduated with thesis on voter behaviour, before performing the first exit poll held in the Netherlands during parliamentary elections as per the methodology he had earlier developed.

Labour Party

During the first Van Agt cabinet (1977–1981), Van Dam became the state secretary of Housing for the PvdA before the fall of the cabinet, then later becoming member of the House of Representatives (1977–1981).

At the height of the Lockheed bribery scandals in 1976, Van Dam came into conflict with then-Prime Minister Joop den Uyl. The Prime Minister pushed for a compromise on the sensitive issue, advocating that Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld should escape legal prosecution. Van Dam, however, thought the prince would be unjustly released. As he recounts: "I called Joop and said, Joop, I am resigning. And I went home." He later rescinded his resignation.

Decorations

Ribbon bar	Honour	Country	Date	Comment
[[File:Order of the Netherlands Lion ribbon - Knight.svg	80px]]	Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion	Netherlands	11 April 1978
[[File:Order of Orange-Nassau ribbon - Commander.svg	80px]]	Commander of the Order of Orange-Nassau	Netherlands	9 September 1982

References

(25 October 1995). "De hobbelstrategie". De Groene Amsterdammer.
(22 March 1997). "Waarom het kabinet-Den Uyl moest vallen; Bonje om de premier-bonus". NRC Handelsblad.
(8 March 2016). "Marathoninterview Marcel van Dam". VPRO.
(2016). "Kans op meerwaarde van rekenkamers". Beleidsonderzoek Online.
"Staatkundig dagblad van de Zuiderzee".
Beishuizen, Jan. (1967). "Look at the Voter". Het Parool.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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