ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that employer views on welfare reform were heterogeneous, both in terms of their appreciation of programs and their tactical response to attempts to expand the boundaries of the welfare state. The process of social insurance development in turn greatly facilitated the development of employer associations in the Netherlands. One of the clearest examples of employer support for mandatory insurance can be found in the run-up to the introduction of the 1901 Industrial Injuries Act. During the 1980s, the Netherlands consequently became a prime example of a continental welfare state that offered “welfare without work”. While the first major social insurance program in the Netherlands dates back to the early twentieth century, efforts to create a modern welfare state were much less successful than in other countries with similar levels of economic development in the years before the Second World War.
