The second Rutte cabinet, also called the Rutte–Asscher cabinet, was the executive branch of the Government of the Netherlands from 5 November 2012 until 26 October 2017. The cabinet was formed by the conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the social-democratic Labour Party (PvdA) after the election of 2012. The cabinet was a centrist grand coalition and had a slim majority in the House of Representatives. VVD Leader Mark Rutte served as Prime Minister; prominent PvdA politician Lodewijk Asscher, a former alderman of Amsterdam, served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Social Affairs and Employment.

The politics of the Netherlands take place within the framework of a parliamentary representative democracy. A constitutional monarchy, the country is organised as a decentralised unitary state. The Netherlands can be described as a consociational state. Dutch politics and governance are characterised by a common striving for broad consensus on important issues, within both of the political community and society as a whole.