The Economy And Politics Of The Netherlands Since 1945

There is relatively little information on The Netherlands written in the English language which is easily accessible to social science students and even less which is systematically assembled between the covers of a single book. This is unfortunate not only because The Netherlands is an important part of Western Europe but because the experience of The Netherlands in the way in which it has attempted to resolve the economic and political problems confronting it may help to shed valuable light on similar issues facing other European countries. The contributions for this volume were chosen with these considerations in mind. On the one hand the selection of topics was intended to provide an overall impression of the political and economic development of The Netherlands since the Second World War. Thus separate chapters are devoted to an examination of economic develop ment; counter-inflation, energy, regional and planning policies; pressure groups, electoral performance, cabinet formation and colonial and Euro pean policies. On the other hand, these areas for investigation were chosen to invite specific contrast with the experience of other European nations or to illustrate certain problems of political or economic theory. It is my pleasure to thank, first of all, the contributors themselves for the conscientious way in which they prepared their drafts which made my task as editor so much easier. Secondly, it will be apparent to even the most casual observer that I have contributed two chapters.

First published in 1999, this volume surveys economic theories of political mechanisms as well as political theories of the influence of the institutional context in which decisions about social economic policies are being made. In the first half of the seventeenth century the Dutch Republic emerged as one of Europe's leading maritime powers. The political and military leadership of this small country was based on large-scale borrowing from an increasingly wealthy middle-class of merchants, manufacturers and regents This volume presents the first comprehensive account of the political economy of the Dutch republic from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth century. Building on earlier scholarship and extensive new evidence it tackles two main issues: the effect of political revolution on property rights and public finance, and the ability of the nation to renegotiate issues of taxation and government borrowing in changing political circumstances.

In the first half of the seventeenth century the Dutch Republic emerged as one of Europe's leading maritime powers. The political and military leadership of this small country was based on large-scale borrowing from an increasingly wealthy middle-class of merchants, manufacturers and regents This volume presents the first comprehensive account of the political economy of the Dutch republic from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth century. Building on earlier scholarship and extensive new evidence it tackles two main issues: the effect of political revolution on property rights and public finance, and the ability of the nation to renegotiate issues of taxation and government borrowing in changing political circumstances. The essays in this volume charts the Republic's rise during the seventeenth century, and subsequent decline as other European nations adopted the Dutch financial model and warfare bankrupted the state in the eighteenth century. By charting the United Provinces's financial ability to respond to the changing national and international circumstances across a three-hundred year period, much can be learned not only about the Dutch experience, but the wider European implications as well.

Ecoltomic and political background When after five years of war and occupation (May 194o-May 1945) The Netherlands started on the road to recovery, the economy was in a catastrophic condition. As a result of destruction, requisitioning and looting, and of unavoidable expenditures by the Government in exile, the national wealth in terms of real and financial assets had been reduced by about 30 per cent. The productive capacity in industry, agriculture, transportation and infrastructure was heavily damaged, stocks were exhausted and labor productivity was serious ly underminded (the daily food ration had reached the near starvation level of barely 600 calories per person).1 Monetary reserves and foreign investments had suffered heavy losses. The economic and social strategy on which the new post-war Government embarked was directed towards three major objec tives: a) rapid reconstruction of the productive potential; b) equit able distribution of the national income; c) rational utilization of the available economic resources. It was realized that the achieve ment of these objectives was conditioned by austerity with respect to consumption, after a reasonable subsistence level had been restored; by a maximum investment effort; by the re-establish- 1 During the war period, the population had increased by more than 400,000 reaching 9.3 million end-I94S.

Coordination in Transition analyzes the evolution of the institutional structure of the Dutch political economy since 1950, focusing on the constant adaptation of deliberative institutions to structural economic change.