The First Beel cabinet was the executive branch of the

Dutch Government The politics of the Netherlands take place within the framework of a parliamentary representative democracy, a constitutional monarchy, and a decentralised unitary state.''Civil service systems in Western Europe'' edited by A. J. G. M. Bekk ...

from 3 July 1946 until 7 August 1948. The cabinet was formed by the

christian-democratic Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...

Catholic People's Party The Catholic People's Party ( nl, Katholieke Volkspartij, KVP) was a Catholic Christian democratic political party in the Netherlands. The party was founded in 1945 as a continuation of the Roman Catholic State Party, which was a continuation of ...

(KVP) and the social-democratic Labour Party (PvdA) after the election of 1946. The cabinet was a

centre-left Centre-left politics lean to the left on the left–right political spectrum but are closer to the centre than other left-wing politics. Those on the centre-left believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. The ...

grand coalition and had a substantial majority in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

with prominent

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

politician

Louis Beel Louis Joseph Maria Beel (12 April 1902 – 11 February 1977) was a Dutch politician of the defunct Roman Catholic State Party (RKSP) and later co-founder of the Catholic People's Party (KVP) now the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and j ...

serving as

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

and dual served as

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

continuing from the previous cabinet.

Labour Leader The ''Labour Leader'' was a British socialist newspaper published for almost one hundred years. It was later renamed ''New Leader'' and ''Socialist Leader'', before finally taking the name ''Labour Leader'' again. 19th century The origins of the ...

Willem Drees Willem () is a Dutch and West FrisianRienk de Haan, ''Fryske Foarnammen'', Leeuwarden, 2002 (Friese Pers Boekerij), , p. 158. masculine given name. The name is Germanic, and can be seen as the Dutch equivalent of the name William in English, G ...

continued as

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president ...

and Minister of Social Affairs from the previous cabinet. According to one study, “Beel was of the opinion that a joint KVP-PvdA program should be presented to other political groups. According to Beel, that program should be socio-economically progressive, that is to say reform-oriented in favor of broad layers of the population. The socialists should not have to fear that a conservative wing within the KVP would rule the roost.” The cabinet served during early years of the post-war

1940s File:1940s decade montage.png, Above title bar: events during World War II (1939–1945): From left to right: Troops in an LCVP landing craft approaching Omaha Beach on D-Day; Adolf Hitler visits Paris, soon after the Battle of France; The Ho ...

. Domestically the beginning of the recovery and rebuilding following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

continued with the

Marshall Plan The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $13 billion (equivalent of about $ in ) in economic re ...

, it was also to implement several major social reforms to

social security Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

. Internationally the beginning of the

decolonization Decolonization or decolonisation is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. Some scholars of decolonization focus especially on separatism, in ...

of the Dutch East Indies was continued. The cabinet suffered no major internal and external conflicts. Following a major revision of the

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

snap election A snap election is an election that is called earlier than the one that has been scheduled. Generally, a snap election in a parliamentary system (the dissolution of parliament) is called to capitalize on an unusual electoral opportunity or to ...

was called to simultaneously elect a new parliament. Following the

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

the cabinet continued in a demissionary capacity until it was replaced with the

Drees–Van Schaik cabinet The Drees–Van Schaik cabinet, also called the First Drees cabinet was the executive branch of the Dutch Government from 7 August 1948 until 15 March 1951. The cabinet was formed by the christian-democratic Catholic People's Party (KVP) and Ch ...

Term

A major issue was the independence of the Dutch East Indies. This required a change in the constitution. In November 1946 the

Linggadjati Agreement The Linggardjati Agreement (''Linggarjati'' in modern Indonesian spelling) was a political accord concluded on 15 November 1946 by the Dutch administration and the unilaterally declared Republic of Indonesia in the village of Linggarjati, Kunin ...

was signed, but different interpretations led to Dutch military intervention (

politionele acties ' ( en, police actions) refers to two major military offensives undertaken by the Netherlands on Java and Sumatra against the Republic of Indonesia during its struggle for independence in the Indonesian National Revolution. In Indonesia they ar ...

). Under international pressure through the UN, this ended and negotiations restarted, ultimately resulting in the new country

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, but only under the next cabinet, Drees I. An important new law was the 'Noodwet Ouderdomsvoorziening' by

and Minister of Social Affairs

Cabinet Members

: : : : : : : :

Trivia

* Six cabinet members had previous experience as scholars or professors:

(Administrative Law), Piet Lieftinck (Financial and Business Economics),

Jan van den Brink Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Numb ...

(Public Economics and Economical Statistics), Jos Gielen (Philology and Education Sociology), Johan Ringers (Hydraulic and Structural Engineering) and Joris in 't Veld (Public Administration). * The age difference between oldest cabinet member Johan Ringers (born 1885) and the youngest cabinet member Jan van den Brink (born 1915) was . * Louis Beel became the youngest Dutch Prime Minister at the age of , a record that was broken in 1982 by

Ruud Lubbers Rudolphus Franciscus Marie "Ruud" Lubbers (; 7 May 1939 – 14 February 2018) was a Dutch politician, diplomat and businessman who served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1982 to 1994, and as United Nations High Commissioner for Re ...

. * Jan van den Brink became the youngest Dutch Minister at the age of .

References

External links

;Official *
Kabinet-Beel I
Parlement & Politiek *
Kabinet-Beel I
Rijksoverheid {{DEFAULTSORT:Beel cabinet, First Cabinets of the Netherlands 1946 establishments in the Netherlands 1948 disestablishments in the Netherlands Cabinets established in 1946 Cabinets disestablished in 1948 Grand coalition governments