ABSTRACT
The idyllic picture of the polder model has elicited both inspiration and criticism from other Europeans. The symptoms of a possible identity crisis have been emerging steadily but slowly. While these symptoms have not yet eroded the idyllic portrait of the world's most tolerant society, they did raise the uncomfortable question about what Dutch national identity stands for. This idyllic version of the Dutch as a tolerant nation remained undisturbed even at a time of multicultural unrest. According to Hermann Vuisje—one of the first outspoken critics of the apparent failure of Dutch multiculturalism—there is a strong taboo in Dutch society about ethnicity and ethnic issues. A 2009 interview with Ineke Strouken, director of the Dutch Centre for National Culture, hints at the fact that Dutch identity is not an organic whole that can be subsumed under one cliche.
