Coalition Building and Planning for Dutch Growth Management: The Role of the Randstad Concept

Abstract

The paper is about how, drawing on a unique policy infrastructure, the Dutch welfare state has come to conceptualise urban structure and a growth management strategy. It traces the history of coalition formation around the Randstad and its complement, the Green Heart. At the heart of growth management is the unparallelled public involvement in land policy and in housing. This paper also shows that coalition building around growth management is pre-programmed in intergovernmental relations and in arrangements to overcome 'individual ministerial responsibility'. Light is also cast on the division of society into ideological blocs and the Dutch welfare state. However, these days, Dutch corporate democracy seems to have few friends. Wholesale reform is being discussed, and so Dutch planners may lose their advantage. Randstad may continue to be seen as their international trademark. Internally, it may lose its appeal and become ever more diffuse in reality. However, a revival of the Randstad/Green Heart idea cannot be excluded either.