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Corporatism and social policy: The development of the modern Dutch welfare state

Posted on:1990-09-08Degree:Ph.DType:Dissertation
University:Indiana UniversityCandidate:Cox, Robert HenryFull Text:PDF
GTID:1476390017953251Subject:Political science
Abstract/Summary:
This dissertation is a study of the politics of policy making. Specifically, it is a case study of the development of social welfare programs in the Netherlands, and attempts to explain why Dutch welfare programs experienced rapid growth in the 1960's and 1970's. Explaining this rapid growth presents problems for both socio-economic and political theoretical attempts to explain welfare growth. The Netherlands experienced no dramatic socio-economic change that could account for its welfare state growth. Political explanations, which focus on parties or autonomous bureaucracies, do not explain the Dutch case because they focus on institutions that are not the primary policy making institutions in the Netherlands.;In the Netherlands, social welfare policy making institutions are corporatist. Corporatism awards private interests special representation in the policy making process, and policy decisions are made in consultation between the represented interests and state officials. Private charity associations and producer groups (labor and employer organizations) are the groups involved in these consultations. But while corporatism is a style of policy making found in many West European countries, Dutch corporatism is unique because the private interests involved in corporatist negotiations are distinguished along religious lines. I explain how religious mobilization in the early part of the Twentieth Century influenced the creation of Dutch corporatist institutions.;The study of the growth of the Dutch welfare state focuses on the development of three pieces of legislation that form the core of the Dutch social security programs--The Public Retirement Pensions Act (1957), The Public Assistance Act (1965), and The Public Disability Insurance Act (1976). The Dutch welfare state grew as a result of the corporatist policy making in the development of each of these laws. Following World War Two a Social Democratic government attempted to expand the system of welfare provisions in the Netherlands, but failed because the proposals were opposed by private interests represented in corporatist institutions. I explain how a change in the attitudes of the private interests in the 1960's fostered a new consensus on social welfare reform that resulted in the dramatic expansion of the Dutch welfare state.
Keywords/Search Tags:Welfare, Policy, Social, Development, Corporatism, Private interests
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