ABSTRACT

The Dutch “polder model” has its roots in the 1980s. The term was coined in order to describe a complex of economic, social, and labor market policies. It began in the early 1980s and led step-by-step to impressive results, particularly in the labor market in the 1990s. One of its major characteristics was the consensual relationship between the main political parties, trade unions, and business organizations (Visser and Hemerijk 1998). Prior to it, there had been, in the late 1960s and in the 1970s, a relatively late expansion of the Dutch welfare state. Until then, the welfare state in the Netherlands was relatively underdeveloped compared to other European countries (Schmid 2002: 183). The pension law of 1957, passed under social democratic Prime Minister Willem Drees, was the starting point for one of Europe’s most encompassing welfare states. The further expansion was predominantly the work of the Christian democrat Gerard Veldkamp, who was Minister of Welfare and Health under a social democratic prime minister from 1973 to 1977. Veldkamp originated the Dutch welfare state’s combination of Bismarckian and Beveridgian elements. The decisive welfare legislation, which remains formative to this day, was enacted between the late 1960s and the mid-1970s (de Gier and Ooijens 2004). The rise of one of the most generous, passive, and inviable welfare systems was epitomized by the worker disability law of 1976. Following the implementation of the law, the number of incapacitated people doubled to reach 608,000 in the period 1975-1980, and continued to rise thereafter. There were almost three times as many incapacitated people as there were jobless persons. This laid the foundation for the “Dutch disease.” In the course of the second oil crisis, the limited fi nancial viability of the Dutch welfare state became all too apparent.