Cabinet of the Netherlands in the context of "Second Van Agt cabinet"

Deputy minister is a title borne by politicians or officials in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. A deputy minister is positioned in some way "under" a minister, who is a full member of Cabinet, in charge of a particular standing policy portfolio, and typically oversees an associated civil service department. Depending on the jurisdiction, a "Deputy minister" may be a Cabinet minister who regularly acts as and for a more senior cabinet minister (rare except in the case of "Deputy Prime Minister"), a junior minister assigned to assist a cabinet minister, an elected member of the governing party or coalition assigned to assist a specific cabinet minister "from the back benches" (i.e., not part of the Cabinet, Government or Ministry) or a non-elected head of a civil service department taking political direction from a Cabinet minister.

• Bangladesh: A Deputy minister is junior to a Minister of a Department of State (portfolio minister) and of similar standing to a Parliamentary Secretary.
• Canada: The Deputy minister is the senior civil servant in a government department and takes political direction from an appointed minister of the Crown.
• Japan: A Deputy Minister assists the work of the Cabinet of Japan.
• Malaysia: A Deputy minister is not a member of the Cabinet and also called half minister. It is secondary to and ranked below ministers. Deputy ministers deputise for ministers. A ministry usually has one or two deputy ministers.
• Netherlands: A State Secretary is the title of a junior member of the Cabinet of the Netherlands.
• Poland: The ministries are staffed by secretaries of state and undersecretaries of state, commonly referred to as deputy ministers. Their task is to assist the Minister and replace him if necessary. Main article: Secretary of state (Poland) [pl]
• South Africa: A Deputy Minister is secondary to cabinet ministers. The Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet also has deputy shadow ministers.
• Sri Lanka: A Deputy ministers are junior ministers ranking below that of cabinet minister and State Minister. It is similar to the pre-1972 post of Parliamentary Secretary.
• Tanzania: The Deputy ministers are junior ministers, and are usually not members of the government's cabinet.
• Timor-Leste: The Government, which comprises the Prime Minister, Ministers and Secretaries of State, may include one or more Deputy Prime Ministers and Deputy Ministers.

In the Netherlands, the Constitution refers to Amsterdam as the capital city. However, since 1588, the States General and the Executive Branch, along with the Supreme Court and the Council of State, have been situated in The Hague as the seat of government. Since the 1983 revision of the Constitution of the Netherlands, Article 32 mentions that "the King shall be sworn in and inaugurated as soon as possible in the capital city, Amsterdam". It is the only reference in the document stating that Amsterdam is the capital. In contrast, The Hague is customarily called the residentie ("residence").

Only once during its history was Amsterdam both "capital" and seat of government. Between 1808 and 1810, during the Kingdom of Holland, King Louis Napoleon resided in Amsterdam and declared the city capital of his kingdom and seat of government. To accommodate the king, the grand seventeenth-century Town Hall of Amsterdam, a prime example of the republican values that were prevalent for so long in the Netherlands, was converted into a Royal Palace.

There are twelve provinces (Dutch: provincies [proːˈvɪnsis] or provinciën [proːˈvɪnsijə(n)] ; sing. provincie [ˌproːˈvɪnsi] ) of the Netherlands representing the administrative layer between the national government and the local governments, with responsibility for matters of subnational or regional importance.

The most populous province is South Holland, with just over 3.8 million inhabitants as of January 2023, and also the most densely populated province with 1,410/km (3,700/sq mi). With 391,124 inhabitants, Zeeland has the smallest population. However Drenthe is the least densely populated province with 191/km (490/sq mi). In terms of area, Friesland is the largest province with a total area of 5,753 km (2,221 sq mi). If water is excluded, Gelderland is the largest province by land area at 4,960 km (1,915 sq mi). The province of Utrecht is the smallest with a total area of 1,560 km (602 sq mi), while Flevoland is the smallest by land area at 1,410 km (544 sq mi). In total about 10,000 people were employed by the provincial administrations in 2018.

Since 1 January 2023, there are 342 regular municipalities (Dutch: gemeenten [ɣəˈmeːntə(n)] ; sing. gemeente [xəˈmeːntə] ) and three special municipalities (Dutch: bijzondere gemeenten [biˈzɔndərə -]) in the Netherlands. The latter is the status of three of the six island territories that make up the Dutch Caribbean. Municipalities are the second-level administrative division, or public bodies (Dutch: openbare lichamen), in the Netherlands and are subdivisions of their respective provinces. Their duties are delegated to them by the central government and they are ruled by a municipal council that is elected every four years. Municipal mergers have reduced the total number of municipalities by two-thirds since the first official boundaries were created in the mid 19th century. Municipalities themselves are informally subdivided into districts and neighbourhoods for administrative and statistical purposes.

These municipalities come in a wide range of sizes, Westervoort is the smallest with a land area of 7.01 km (2.71 sq mi) and Súdwest-Fryslân the largest with a land area of 522.7 km (201.8 sq mi). Schiermonnikoog is both the least populated, with 972 people, and the least densely populated municipality at 23/km (60/sq mi). Amsterdam has the highest population with 931,298 residents as of January 2024, whereas The Hague is the most densely populated with a density of 6,868/km (17,790/sq mi).

The Council of State (Dutch: Raad van State) is a constitutionally established advisory body in the Netherlands to the government and States General that officially consists of members of the royal family and Crown-appointed members generally having political, commercial, diplomatic or military experience. It was founded in 1531, making it one of the world's oldest still-functioning state organisations.

The Advisory Division of the Council of State must be consulted by the cabinet on proposed legislation before a law is submitted to parliament. The Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State also serves as one of the four highest courts of appeal in administrative matters. The King is president of the Council of State but he seldom chairs meetings. The Vice-President of the Council of State chairs meetings in his absence and is the de facto major personality of the institution. Under Dutch constitutional law, the Vice-President of the Council is acting head of state when there is no monarch such as if the royal family were to become extinct.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Dutch: Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken; BZ) is the Netherlands' ministry responsible for foreign relations, foreign policy, international development, international trade, diaspora and matters dealing with the European Union, NATO and the Benelux Union. The ministry was created in 1798, as the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Batavian Republic. In 1876, it became the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs is the head of the ministry and a member of the cabinet of the Netherlands, the incumbent minister is David van Weel. The state secretary on the ministry is Aukje de Vries, who is responsible for foreign trade and development aid.

The minister of foreign affairs (Dutch: Minister van Buitenlandse Zaken) is the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a member of the Cabinet and the Council of Ministers. The incumbent minister is David van Weel of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). Regularly, a state secretary is assigned to the ministry who is tasked with specific portfolios, currently Aukje de Vries (VVD). Additionally since 1965 there has been a minister without portfolio assigned to the ministry, the minister for foreign trade and development cooperation has traditionally development cooperation as portfolio, since 2012 the portfolio of trade and export has been assigned added to the function.