ABSTRACT
Within the various pillars, different ideas were formulated about the government’s response to the economic problems of the 1930s. Ideas on demand management, for instance, were introduced into economic policy debates in the Netherlands as early as 1935, when the Social Democratic Workers Party published its much debated Labour Plan. This plan was meant to be a new basis for political discussion and integrated many ideas and proposals for a future social-economic order in the Netherlands. It contained a plea for the introduction of an economic policy based on centralised planning, which was to offset the erratic outcome of an otherwise uncontrolled economic development. One of the specific suggestions of the Labour Plan was that the government should try and stimulate economic recovery through extra expenditures on projects of public works. Thereby, funds would be injected into the economy that – via an accelerating principle – could lead to a general rise in purchasing power and effective demand, which was expected to be a first and necessary step towards structural economic recovery.15
