I'm Dutch ;-) The government in the Netherlands fell because it was a terribly mismatched coalition to begin with and the issue of military intervention in Afg

I'm Dutch ;-) The government in the Netherlands fell because it was a terribly mismatched coalition to begin with and the issue of military intervention in Afghanistan was the last in a series of internal conflicts that made it unworkable. (IMHO). Generally speaking, the Dutch form of government, where people vote once every four years for parties they think should be part of a coalition government which then, basically, gets to do whatever it wants until it's voted out, is exactly what I had in mind when I wrote my original comment. Once a government is in place, there's hardly any checks and balances to speak of, but once in a while you get the chance to vote out parties that have really made a mess of things. () yes, I know that according to the constitution parliament has the last say in government. in practice, however, several parties commit to a coalition government and will defend it no matter what, even if said government does something they're absolutely against.