Dutch Provinces Research Articles

Institutional Fleecing: The Slow Death of Dutch Provinces

Many theories on organizational change depart from the assumption of change for the better, that is, change in order to gain a stronger position in relation to its competitors, to become more effective or efficient, or at least to improve the organization. It is our idea that the theories developed on this basis are biased. Contrasting to this dominant approach, this article gives a longitudinal analysis of the development in an organization in decline. It is directed at explaining the downfall of a Dutch province. In the medieval empire of Charlemagne it was one of the most powerful duchies of Europe. Later it became one of the seven provinces in the powerful Dutch Republic, and nowadays it has lost nearly all its tasks and functions. Departing from neo-institutional theory this paper seeks the major causes for this downfall and specifies some of the relations in the theoretical model of punctuated equilibrium. It concludes that the historical institutional dynamics can be seen as a self-enforcing process in which punctuations can be explained by the increasing distance between individual preferences within the organization, and the pressures originating from developments in the environment.

Between patriotism and nationalism: Johan Hendrik Swildens and the ‘pedagogy of the patriotic virtues’ in the United Dutch Provinces during the 1780s and 1790s

Between patriotism and nationalism: Johan Hendrik Swildens and the ‘pedagogy of the patriotic virtues’ in the United Dutch Provinces during the 1780s and 1790s

Restructuring Welfare Organizations: The Power and Powerlessness of Local Authorities

In an attempt to enhance the controllability of the many welfare organizations operating within its borders, the government of one of the Dutch provinces tried to impose a programme of mergers of those organizations, intended to result in no more than four mega-institutions. This process of decision making and implementation, which turned out to be unexpectedly exhausting for all parties involved, was analysed from the point of view of the government's power bases, as conceptualized by Mulder, de Jong, Koppelaar, and Verhagen (1986). Data collected by interviews revealed that the government, without being aware of this, was hampered by the deficiencies of most of its potential power bases. In many instances, it consequently demanded more from the organizations involved than it actually (psychologically) was entitled to do, and, provoking effective resistance by doing so, was forced continually to reconsider its decisions. The lesson that could be learned is, first, that the diagnosis and the build-up of a government's power bases (“power expansion”) should be part and parcel of the strategy of large scale renewal projects such as the one under study, and, second, that in order to achieve large scale change, governments should reduce their need of power as much as possible (“influence reduction”), by leaving the change to be realized maximally open to decision making and problem solving by the organizations involved. Furthermore, the data revealed a number of situational factors that undermined the different power bases of the government, and thus suggested some refinements of the theory of power bases.

Low incidence of childhood celiac disease in The Netherlands.

The incidence and prevalence of celiac disease vary internationally. We studied the incidence of identified cases of childhood celiac disease in six Dutch provinces that cover 47.9% of the surface area and 67.6% of the total population of The Netherlands. Children with celiac disease aged 0-14 y, diagnosed from January 1975 to January 1991, were traced by 1) contacting all pediatricians in this area, 2) examining the date of the Dutch National Medical Registration, and 3) investigating the membership records of the Dutch Celiac Disease Society. These data were cross-checked by the Dutch Network and National Database of Pathology. Of the 97.9% of pediatricians who answered our inquiry, 46.1% were treating celiac patients. A total of 342 celiac patients were identified. Informed consent that permitted examination of their medical files was given by 97.3% of the parents of the celiac children. The mean crude incidence rate of diagnosed childhood celiac disease, calculated per 1000 live births per year, was 0.18. However, a significant increase in reported incidence was demonstrated from 0.10 in 1976 to 0.32 in 1990. The best estimate, for the years 1985-1990, is 0.22/1000 live births, which is much lower than in most European countries.

The Delivery of Family Planning Services in the Netherlands

sterilization, the pill or the IUD. This report explores some aspects of the provision of health care and family planning services in the Netherlands that may help to explain this impressive contraceptive behavior. The Dutch health care system emphasizes preventive care, with the family physician, who is a general practitioner (GP), acting as the entry point into the system.' Almost all residents in the Netherlands are registered with a GP, the choice of GP being left to the individual. These physicians, the majority of whom are men, are consulted first for all medical problems; they provide all routine medical services, arrange for their patients' hospital stays and refer patients to specialists for sterilizations, abortions and other services they are unable to provide. Nationally, there are 40 GPs per 100,000 population in the Netherlands, as compared with 31 per 100,000 in the United States.2 GPs are fairly equally distributed throughout the 12 Dutch provinces. Over 60 percent of GPs are in solo practice, 33 percent are in a partnership or group practice and about seven percent work in health centers.3 Almost all family physicians participate

Idéologies politiques pendant la révolte des Pays-Bas de 1566 à 1588, ou comment les Etats-Généraux de ces provinces prirent conscience de leur souveraineté

Dutch pamphlet literature constitutes, for the period of the revolt against Spain, a particularly original testimony of the close relationship between theoretical polemics and the evolution of a political situation. In a very short lapse of time — 1566-1588 — the contents of certain pamphlets attest a major theoretical read¬ justment ; this led to an upheaval of the relationship Prince-States which had hitherto governed the functioning of the Spanish monarchy in the Low Countries and to investing the assembly of Dutch provinces with a sovereignty which they were in fact exercising in the political field.

The Holland towns and the Dutch-Spanish conflict, 1621-1648

Although the province of Holland surpassed by far the other six Dutch provinces in wealth and population during the Golden Age, there were nevertheless major political episodes in which Holland failed to exercise effective leadership or exert decisive influence. Indeed, it could even occur that a clear majority of the voting members of the province of Holland, with Amsterdam, the Republic's richest and largest city taking the lead, could fail to get its way when the other provinces were split three against three. One highly instructive such episode was the prolonged political battle within the Republic that continued through most of the second Dutch-Spanish war of 1621-1648 over whether or not to accept Spanish proposals for a truce or peace. Although this subject is not much discussed or very familiar today, for a quarter of a century during the Golden Age, it loomed as the most important issue in Dutch life second only to the rivalry between the Counter-Remonstrant and Remonstrant factions. Over many years it was referred to in the deliberations of the Dutch provincial assemblies and city administrations simply as the groote saecke or the groote werck to mark it off from the mass of less significant questions. The problem for the historian is that almost all of the relevant secret resolutions of the States of Holland have been lost. To reconstruct the story, he must rely, for the most part, on the records of the various city councils. While Dutch-Spanish negotiations proceeded almost without break in the years 1621-1628, through various intermediaries, it was only in the winter of 1628-1629, that Philip IV fmally dropped his insistence that the Dutch Republic must make a number of concessions before he would accept a truce. In January 1629, the Spanish king signed a secret authorization for the Archduchess Isabella, governess of the Southern Netherlands, empowering her to conclude a truce of long duration, on the lines of that of 1609, without requiring any concession by the Dutch that did not figure in the earlier truce, and in February, he also authorized her, should there be any difficulty in renewing the terms of 1609, to agree to a simple armi-

The structure of regional unemployment in the Netherlands: An exploratory statistical analysis

This paper starts from monthly observations on unemployment rates of Dutch provinces. By means of several statistical techniques these data are analysed so that underlying intra- and inter-regional patterns are revealed. After having discussed some peculiarities of the data, the assumptions and definitions underlying the statistical analysis are stated. Then some basic characterictics of the series and their mutual associations are analysed, like standard deviation, coefficient of variation, auto- and cross-correlogram, and results of a principal component analysis in the time domain. Regional behaviour in an isolated way is investigated by means of auto-spectral analysis, which indicates inter-regional differences in the importance of periodical components. By means of cross-spectral analysis inter-regional associations are analysed in a pairwise way. To summarize still better the periodical patterns in the whole regional system a principal component analysis of the spectral estimates is considered. The paper finally discusses some elements of a more explanatory approach to the problem.

The cyclical sensitivity to unemployment of Dutch provinces, 1950–1972

The cyclical sensitivity to unemployment of Dutch provinces, 1950–1972

The dynamic attraction model

Solving an attraction model is trying to “quantify” communication cost; the latter is defined as all cost — including losses of profit — that results from the non-proximity of all needed raw materials, semi-products, informers, employees and customers. Entrepreneurs try to evade communication-cost as far as possible by achieving a more or less careful selection procedure regarding their future site. Analysing the normal conjunction of several kinds of intersector (mainly interindustry) relations, gives an (indirect) view on communication cost. Should this be done on the basis of activities — given their “location” — performed at a given moment (year), the analysis is static in character, while an analysis of increases of activities means the testing of a dynamic model. The present article deals mainly with the first test of a dynamic attraction model, although the main part of it is introduced by a brief description of the basic static model. It is shown that on the level of the Dutch provinces, considerable demand attraction and supply attraction prevails.

Epidemiology of mesothelioma on Walcheren Island.

Stumphius, J. (1971). Brit. J. industr. Med., 28, 59-66. Epidemiology of mesothelioma on Walcheren Island. The chance finding of asbestos bodies without \`asbestosis' in the lungs of a shipyard worker who had not worked directly with asbestos led to this investigation into the relationship between asbestos bodies in the sputum, occupation, and mesothelioma in the shipyard at Vlissingen on Walcheren Island. Examination of the sputum from a sample of 277 shipyard workers from various occupation groups (excluding insulation workers and others known to work continuously with asbestos) showed \`asbestos' bodies to be present in 60%. The frequency varied from 39% in workers with no obvious exposure to asbestos dust to 100% among those with slight but definite exposure. By repeating the analysis using the occupations 5 to 10 years previously it was found that many of the workers currently employed in occupations not exposed to asbestos who had asbestos bodies in their sputum had been exposed in the past. Between 1962 and 1968, 25 cases of mesothelioma were discovered on Walcheren; of these, 22 cases had been employed in the shipyard at some time and their actual job was known in all but one case. The shipyard employs approximately 3 000 men so that the attack rate for mesothelioma was approximately 100 per 100 000 males per year. For Dutch provinces with heavy industry the rate is 1·0 per 100 000 per year. For the different occupational categories within the shipyard the rates varied from approximately 50 for `clean work' to 280 for men with some exposure to asbestos dust. Asbestos insulation workers were not included in the study and no cases of mesothelioma came from that occupational group.

SPINOZA: A LOOK AT HIS PSYCHOLOGICAL CONCEPTS

Scientific interests, among other things, are also rooted in childhood experience. Around the corner from our house in The Hague, my hometown, there was a statue of Benedictus de Spinoza. We youngsters used to play our games at the feet of the contemplative philosopher ensconced in his chair of stone. At one end of the street stood the famous “Court of the Holy Spir. it,” a sixteenth century group of dwellings built for the purpose of affording the aged a peaceful haven in the evening of their lives. On the opposite side was the restored renaissance house where Spinoza once dwelled. Questions about this mysterious figure in stone were answered later as we became better acquainted with the dramatic history of Holland. We learned that Spinoza, the gentle refugee and polisher of eyeglass lenses, was the close friend and adviser of Jan de Wit, the principal Regent of the Seven Dutch Provinces. It was said that the only time in his life that Spinoza lost his composure and equanimity was when his friend was brutally put to death by the crowds in a political mutiny. At that point he was ready to fight the riotous violence with his bare hands. Spinoza’s lonely grave stands not far away in the beautiful yard of an old Protestant church of stately baroque style, under which lies buried his murdered friend. More was gleaned about the significance of this solitary philosopher when studying at the University of Leyden, in the town near where Spinoza lived and left his spiritual mark. The family of Benedictus de Spinoza had to flee religious persecution in Spain and Portugal at the close of the sixteenth century and settle in Amsterdam, Holland, a town and country then undergoing tremendous mercantile expansion. The young Dutch republic, although still at war with Spain, was dispatching its ships all over the seven seas. At the same time the country was opening its arms to the various per-

Free Trade and Protection in the Netherlands, 1816-1830.

Originally published in 1955, this book examines the first trade union between the Dutch and Belgian Netherlands, a precursor to the modern Benelux, from 1816 to 1830. Wright focuses on the role played by the trade agreement in uniting disparate parts of the Dutch provinces in Europe and abroad, and how, despite the union's relative success, politics undermined King William I's end goal of an independent Dutch Empire. This book will be of value to economic historians and anyone with an interest in Dutch history.