This title was first published in 2001: Under the name of the "polder model", the Dutch model of democracy has received favourable attention from journalists, administrators and political leaders. This book presents a thorough analysis of Dutch democracy as a specimen of consensus democracy. The Dutch administrative tradition of consensus, consultation and compromise is reflected in current trends towards networks and new interactive technologies. This insightful account is an excellent resource for courses on European studies, comparative politics, public policy and administration.
To what does the Netherlands owe their recent economic success? Will the polder model become the victim of its own success or will the threat come mainly from outside? In the Netherlands, polder are small communities hemmed in by dykes built to resist quickly rising tides, and hence imply communal effort to mediate harmful outside forces. Translated into economic terms, the polder model entailed tripartite cooperation between business, government, and labor to protect the nation's economic and social well being. Delsen evaluates recent changes in the Dutch economy brought on by globalization and American dominance and concludes that the polder model is reaching its end. Delsen argues that the market forces introduced by the purple governments imply a far-reaching adaptation of the unique Dutch economic order. The primacy of the market has resulted in a more flexible labor market, decentralization of the wage formation, modernization of the social security system, more competition on the goods markets, and liberalization and competition in the financial markets. More market forces within Dutch socioeconomic relations imply also that the aims of trade and industry have changed, and have become oriented toward short-term results and away from actions aimed at long-term continuity and consensus.
Determines wether or not the relevant socio-economic actors pursued a neo-corporatist strategy with regard to the formation and implementation of social and economic policy (incomes policy) and analyses if their strategies are successful.
At the occasion of the 25 anniversary of the Dutch Cultural Policy Act, Dutch academics in cultural policy research have compiled a volume to commemorate the quarter century in which Dutch cultural policy has developed and analyse the key debates in Dutch cultural policy for the coming years. Historically, central public authority in the Netherlands has been problematic. The country's origin as a confederation of seven independent republics, has had effect in the sense that government usually works 'bottom up'. As a result the Netherlands has relatively few national cultural institutions when compared to other countries. Moreover, the national media never have been linked to the nation state. It is therefore surprising that the nation's cultural policy can be described as a national system in which the nation state sets the agenda rather than cities and regions.
The Oxford Handbook of Dutch Politics provides a comprehensive longitudinal overview of the state of the art of academic research on the Dutch political system: its origins and historical development, its key institutions, main fault lines, pivotal processes, and key public policy dynamics. In each of the chapters, researchers take stock of what - if anything - has changed over time, how scholars have conceptualized and studied these dynamics, and what key factors can account for the developmental patterns found to be at play. Notwithstanding its considerable degree of constitutional and institutional stability, Dutch politics has seen considerable step changes and occasional upheavals across the last half century. Influenced by long-term demographic, socio-economic, and cultural shifts the old social cleavages have waned. New social identities and dividing lines - such as ethnicity, education, place, and gender - have influenced Dutch citizens' political attitudes and behaviours, including their voting patterns. The media landscape and the information environment have been altered by new technologies that politicians and citizens alike have to navigate. This has produced changes in such pivotal components as the party system, coalition formation and management process, and executive-legislative relations, and many others. Moreover, public policy paradigms and the political coalitions that sustained them have ascended and lost traction in most of the eleven policy domains discussed in the Handbook. In all, this volume provides unique and indispensable insights into stability and change in a political system that once gained notoriety as an archetype of a consensual or consociational democracy.
Explores the Netherland's recovery from the severe unemployment crisis in the early 1980s to record job growth in the 1990s. Distinguishes three policy changes to explain the "miracle": the wage restraints since the early 1980s; the reform of the social security system ten years later; and the active employment policy of the 1990s.
What are the most salient and sparking facts about the Netherlands? This updated edition of 'Discovering the Dutch' tackles the heart of the question of Dutch identity through a number of essential themes that span the culture, history and society of the Netherlands. Running the gamut from the Randstad to the Dutch Golden Age, from William of Orange to Anne Frank, this volume uses a series of vignettes written by academic experts in their fields to address historical and contemporary topics such as immigration, tolerance, and the struggle against water, as well as issues of culture - painting, literature, architecture, and design among them. All chapters are written by academic experts in their fields who have extensive experience in explaining the many features of "Dutchness" to a foreign audience. Each chapter comes to life in vignettes that illustrate characteristic historical figures or essential aspects in Dutch culture and society from William of Orange and Anne Frank to Dutch cheese and the inevitable coffeeshop.
Public and private managers who are looking for sustainable development have to implement innovative solutions in a complex field of action. Joint action is needed, but the existing power networks within and between public and private domains tend to frustrate joint innovations. This book analyzes how public and private managers deal with energy transitions by creating innovative networks capable of co-ordinated action. A case study shows how separated power networks in the field of mobility, energy and environment, which are spread over the public and private world as well as civil society, are becoming more interconnected
1. The long time scale (1880-2020). Most works only focus on a few decades, while this book takes a longer perspective allowing me to analyze the way policy choices in the 1920s still shape current mobility for instance. 2. The exploration of archives that have not been used before to study cycling history. 3. The focus on social movements as well as provincial and national policymakers and engineers where previous cycling historiography tends to focus only on urban politics.
