Dutch Welfare State Research Articles

Negotiating Marriage: Questions of Morality and Legitimacy in the Ghanaian Pentecostal Diaspora

AbstractAmong the many immigrant groups that have settled in the Netherlands, the recently arrived migrants from Ghana have been perceived by the Dutch state as especially problematic. Explicit measures have been taken to investigate marriages of Ghanaians, as these appeared to be an avenue by which many acquired access to the Dutch welfare state. While the Dutch government tightened its immigration policies, many Ghanaian Pentecostal churches were emerging in the Ghanaian immigrant communities. An important function of these churches is to officiate over marriages; marriages that are perceived as lawful and righteous in the eyes of the migrant community but nonetheless do not have any legal basis as far as the Dutch state is concerned. This contribution explores why the Ghanaian community attributes great moral significance to these marriages that are taking place within their Pentecostal churches. It investigates the changing meaning of the functions of Pentecostal churches in Ghana and in the Netherlands by distinguishing civil morality from civic responsibility. It seeks to explore how, in both contexts, legitimacy is created as well as contested in the face of prevailing state-civil society relations. Through this exploration, it will become clear why, in both situations, Pentecostalism is unlikely to develop into a civic religion in the full sense of the term.

The Widows of the Gasworks: Gendered Path Dependency and the Early Dutch Welfare State

In this article the focus is on the gender implications of the early Dutch welfare state and the status of male and female breadwinners and their dependents in social insurance and poor relief in the Netherlands around 1900. Barbara Nelson’s model of two gendered channels (workmen’s compensation acts versus mothers’ aid laws) in early U.S. social policy serves as a point of reference. The author concludes that, compared to the United States, social policy in the Netherlands did not start as extremely gendered. The assumption of Dutch second-wave feminists that the Dutch welfare state was male breadwinner–minded from the very beginning does not hold water.

Rawls in the Netherlands

In a comprehensive assessment of the penetration of Rawls's ideas in the Netherlands since 1971 five debates are discerned in which different aspects are highlighted or play a role. Some of these debates are more or less ongoing ones, some overlap with each other, and some can be pinpointed more precisely in time. In the first 15 years following the publication of A Theory of Justice, attention was focused on the distributive implications of `justice as fairness'. Next, the `liberalism-communitarianism debate' came to the fore. More recently, Kantian aspects of Rawls's theory have been discussed. A fourth, also more recent debate relates to problems of multiculturalism. Finally, in recent years, and more or less in conjunction with the debate on multiculturalism, the current situation of the Dutch welfare state has been discussed. Here we get back to the core of Rawlsian theory, its distributive implications. But now it is argued that this theory focuses too much on equality at the expense of responsibility and incentives.

Equal Citizenship for All. Disability Policies in the Netherlands: Empowerment of marginals

In January 2001, two of the Netherlands' National Councils of Disabled People and of Chronically Ill People merged to form the Dutch Council of the Chronically Ill and Disabled People (CG-Raad). The strategic policy plan of the newly-formed CG-Raad combines the principles of equality and diversity. This article discusses various aspects of current disability policies in the Netherlands and presents the Dutch welfare state as a 'constructed society' whose policy classifications deconstruct people's personal lives. Everyday life in a society of this kind is a very complicated affair for disabled people. Disability management is presented as a way of overcoming the problems caused by these complications. This article presents an alternative proposition--the 'varied society'. This is a society in which all people are regarded as worthwhile. It is also the principle on which the CG-Raad's strategic policy plan, entitled 'Equal Citizenship', is based.

Trends in Dutch Housing Policy and the Shifting Position of the Social Rented Sector

The housing system of the Netherlands has acquired an international reputation because of its special nature and the way it has evolved. In this contribution, we explain how the Dutch social rented sector came to have this specific character. We establish that the position of the social rented sector is strongly influenced by developments in society at large. In particular, its specific position may be explained with reference to the emergence and transformation of the Dutch welfare state. In the Netherlands, the development of the social rented sector coincided with the vigorous build-up of the welfare state. That sector continued to grow in the Netherlands for a longer period than in most other west European countries. Ultimately, the share of the Dutch social rented sector reached its highest point—41 per cent of the stock—at the beginning of the 1990s. The current position of the social rented sector in the Netherlands is determined not only by the structure of the Dutch welfare state and the country's distinct housing policy. It is also the result of the shifting balance of supply and demand in the national housing market. Compared with other countries, the particular historical development of the Dutch social rented sector makes the adjustment of the housing system to a more market-orientated policy—in which more attention is devoted to the freedom of choice of the housing consumer—an unprecedented activity to say the least. This process will require the present housing associations to show a large measure of creativity and flexibility.

The puzzle of Dutch welfare state retrenchment

In the literature on welfare state retrenchment and in the general emphasis on the resilience of welfare states, the Dutch case appears puzzling by virtue of the fact that significant retrenchments have actually taken place in the Netherlands. It appears even more puzzling considering that the arguments in this literature as to the difficulties in welfare state retrenchments apply very well to this case, whereas the arguments as to why after all welfare state retrenchments are possible do not apply particularly well. This article argues that the explanation for the Dutch puzzle should be found in Dutch politics. Due to the power of the CDA as a pivotal centre party, the PvdA was at an early stage forced to accept welfare state retrenchment. A party consensus thus emerged allowing Dutch governments to define the issue of welfare state retrenchment as a matter of economic necessity.

Welfare state development and employment in the Netherlands in comparative perspective

In recent years it has been said that the Dutch welfare state has been made fit for employment growth. This development is praised as part of the so-called Dutch 'Delta model' which since the mid-1980s has been very succesful in labour market terms. Some 20 years ago, when unemployment started to soar, the high level of social security was seen, by contrast, as an aspect of the 'Dutch disease'. Employing a typology based on regulative assumptions of dealing with market risks and aberrations, this paper briefly analyses the subsequent stages of Dutch welfare state development: from a predominantly Christian- paternalist system to social-democratization from the mid-1960s and then to a certain degree of liberalization since the mid-1980s. The structural or institutional inertia of the original system should not be overlooked, however. Comparative investigation reveals that the current Dutch welfare state, in spite of retrenchment measures, still belongs to the most generous ones in the western world, which allows only for relatively low, though rising, levels of poverty and inequality. And it is questionable whether and to what extent retrenchment has contributed to the impressive, although largely part-time-based rise in the Dutch employment rate. In any case non-employment, broadly understood as different from registered unemployment, has not declined in the Netherlands. It has been redistributed to other categories, particularly to the disability scheme. Like other continental countries, the Netherlands still seems to face the dilemma of work and welfare.

Expansion of Social Space of Muslim Inhabitants

In this paper I analyze the social space of Muslim inhabitants in Amsterdam, paying particular attention to differences of residential area around the city center and its suburbs. This study is based on my fieldwork carried out from February to March 1997 in Amsterdam. The materials were collected through personal interviews.The result of the analysis showed that the residential pattern of Amsterdam experienced great change between 1990 and 1995. Since 1990, the Dutch have tended to concentrate in the northern and southern suburbs and inflow into the area. On the other hand, Moroccan and Turkish inhabitants have concentrated in eastern and western part around the city center. It is pointed out minorities concentrate in CBD and inner city, which often have low-wage jobs and low-rent housings. Lobar and housing market in Amsterdam also affected residential pattern. Ethnic clusters are located around the city center where the ratio of private let and deteriorated housing are relatively high. However, the concentrated area of ethnic minorities has gradually expanded into the suburbs in recent years.According to past studies, it is interpreted that the expansion of ethnic clusters comes from on upgrading of social and economic status. To consider whether or not the same factors also operate on or not in Amsterdam, it is necessary to look at the social space of Muslim inhabitants in two areas around the city center and the suburbs. From the responses to questions, Muslim inhabitants were classified into four types. For the sake of brevity, the members of cluster one can be labeled 'Inhabitants of the first generation live in around the city center'. Cluster two identifies 'Inhabitants of the first generation live in the suburbs'. In contrast, members falling into cluster three could be representing 'Inhabitants of the second generation live in the suburbs'. And, cluster four might be express 'Inhabitants of the second generation live in all areas of the city'.The result of the analysis clearly shows that the expansion of Muslim clusters does not originate from social and economic factors in the Dutch welfare state. More than half of the housing is managed by housing associations in Amsterdam. Because Amsterdam is situated on former marshland, building poses special problems. As Amsterdam developed concentrically, the suburban area has great number of social housing. But, most of the Muslim ingabitants have to lie in private lets around the city center. However, they have opportunities to move into social housing, due to decreas of the Dutch population from 1990 to 1995. For this reason, ethnic clusters have expanded into the suburbs in recent years. The differences between the environs of the city center and the suburbs are family constitution and years residing in Amsterdam. Muslim inhabitants live in suburban areas together with the first generation and the second generation. However, research reveals that social space in two areas consisted of similar social and economic conditions.

Integration of Caribbean immigrants in a welfare state city: Surinamese and Antilleans in Amsterdam

‘Blacks, who are trapped in ghetto-like urban environments and who fail to participate in society, who are not able to get a decent house and cannot get a proper job’: that is the stereotypical fearful image particularly associated with US cities. It also seems to play a major role in the political and scientific debates about integration of (black or coloured) immigrants into other countries. This is certainly true for the Netherlands, where the fear of the ghetto is frequently expressed in relation to the settlement of Caribbean, Turkish and Moroccan immigrants. However, whereas the stereotype of the ghetto may be valid for some parts of the black population in some US cities, the immigrant settlement patterns in the US and elsewhere seem to require other images. Certainly the European (and again specifically the Dutch) situation should not be referred to using labels like ‘the ghetto’, not even when it concerns black Caribbean immigrants of African origin. In this paper we analyse the level of integration of Dutch Caribbean immigrants, i.e. Surinamese and Antilleans. Integration was investigated in the spatial sphere and in the housing market and labour market contexts in the Netherlands, and more particularly in Amsterdam. Moderate levels of spatial segregation and a fairly strong housing market position indicate high levels of integration. Their position on the labour market, which initially was less favourable, has recently improved substantially, and coincides with advancement in higher secondary education among Surinamese youths. The article sets out that these achievements are likely to be associated with the wider organisation of the Dutch welfare state and with the booming economy. Since currently that welfare state is under revision, with an increase in social polarisation and a reduction of housing support among the likely effects, and since employment opportunities for many immigrants are strongly related to the business cycle, the future prospects for Caribbean immigrants are not unambiguously positive. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The expectation(s) of solidarity: matters of justice, responsibility and identity in the reconstruction of the health care system.

We analyse solidarity as a mixture of social justice on the one hand and a set of cultural values and ascriptions on the other hand. The latter defines the relevant sense of belonging together in a society. From a short analysis of the early stages of the Dutch welfare state, we conclude that social responsibility was originally based in religious and political associations. In the heyday of the welfare state, institutions such as sick funds, hospitals or nursing homes became financed collectively entirely and became accessible to people of all denominations. Solidarity was transformed in a more general category, related to the status of Dutch citizenship. Responsibility was transformed to collective responsibility. Financial pressures on the Welfare State have resulted in a debate on choices in health care and in a number of system reforms, so far relatively small. In the surrounding discourse, justice was linked to private responsibility. Both from government officials and from participants in the societal debate, moralistic overtones could be heard concerning the threat of overburdening of the health care system by citizens. In this paper, we develop a concept of reflexive solidarity that links elements of social justice to conceptualisations of responsibility that address policy makers and health care institutions as well as citizens, in their role of care receivers. A short analysis of the phenomenon of personal budgets in care services should prove that our concept of reflexive solidarity is not empty. Linked to, but beyond the concept of justice, issues of social responsibility can be addressed without moralistic overtones.

Reforming the dutch welfare state: A scenario approach

The Dutch social protection system has been under reconstruction since the early 1980s. After describing the structure of the current system and addressing recent developments as to the treatment of families and individuals, this paper presents three scenarios that could develop in future years. In full individualization, benefits and conditions are attuned to individual citizens without considering their care for others and the financial means of others in their household. In a mini-system, statutory benefits are restricted to some minimum level. In further differentiation of the social minimum by household size, benefits are better attuned to the composition and size of household types. These three scenarios are evaluated based on four criteria. The differentiation scenario appears to meet nearly all criteria and seems to offer a new solution for the problem of the weak income position of households with children relative to other household types on the minimum income level.

Managed Liberalization of the Dutch Welfare State: A Review and Analysis of the Reform of the Dutch Social Security System, 1985–1998

In this article the changes that have been implemented in the Dutch social security system are analyzed. The extensive changes are characterized as a form of “managed liberalization.” This characterization points to the paradoxical nature of these changes. On the one hand a certain liberalization can be observed (an increase of social insurance and the administration of social security via the market) while on the other hand the control of the system by the state is also increasing. This process of managed liberalization, however, takes place under an umbrella of lasting universal social protection: entitlements are still determined by law and remain collective. In this article the changes in the Dutch social security are described extensively, interpreted theoretically and analyzed in their consequences for the level of social protection. By following the process of institutional change the system of social security has undergone, the authors also try to find out what the causes of the changes are and what determines the direction the process has taken.

The Dutch model: An Obvious Candidate for the ‘Third Way’?

While the progressive European politicians are on the lookout for a new model of ‘third way’ capitalism with a human face, after the (temporary?) defeat of the Swedish, Dutch welfare state reform occupies a prominent place in many commentaries.Although it attracted only international attention in the mid- 1990s, the ‘Dutch miracle’ has its basis in policy changes in the early 1980s. For a full explanation of the Dutch experience we must go back at least fifteen years, and study the combination of problem loads, power shifts, institutions, politics and ideas, in three ‘tightly coupled’ policy domains of the Dutch welfare state: industrial relations, social security, and labour market policy. The return to wage moderation took place in the early followed by a series of reforms in the systems of social security in the late 1980s and early 1990s. From the mid-1990s, finally, the adoption of an active labour market policy stance, in order to enhance overall efficiency and create a new domestic balance between wages and social benefits, gained political currency. In this article we present a stylised narrative of these policy changes—what happened, how it happened and what it meant. We demonstrate that these three policy shifts, although embedded in different corporate actors, were interrelated; they created the conditions and the demand for one another, and neither of these policies could have been successful on its own.

Ethnic Clusters in Amsterdam, 1994-96: A Micro-area Analysis

Ghetto formation is a recurrent item in debates on urban futures all over the world, the Netherlands not excluded. Many people express their fear for extreme separation between ethnic groups. Many Europeans tend to believe that the recent growth in the number of immigrants in the larger cities will lead to ghetto-like developments, as has happened in US cities with regard to the black population. However, little evidence is available to support that idea. In this paper, this question is addressed based on micro-level spatial data for immigrant groups in Amsterdam. Data were available for two recent years, which provided the opportunity to study the dynamics of ethnic concentrations. Conclusions are, first, that the spatial segregation of immigrant groups in Amsterdam is far from the ghetto-type segregation in US cities; and secondly, that there are indications of the instability of ethnic concentrations, which is considered an indication against the development of ghettos as well. Characteristics of the Dutch welfare state may provide part of the explanation.

Les villes : l'habitat comme clef centrale de l'aménagement urbain

from other nations, is its exceptional social housing stock, both in terms of quantity -relatively largest in Europe -and in terms of quality and accessibility. The extensive production of subsidized housing over the period 1950-1990 provided accomodation for low and medium income households. In addition, that very production facilitated a strong physical planning policy. Government was able to apply the Randstad-Green Heart planning concept and to develop new towns according to plan (as far as housing was concerned), simply because there was so much social housing to be built that could be directed to locations where government wanted it to go. However, the restructuring of the Dutch welfare state, that reached momentum during the ninety nineties, implied a reduction of state interference in general, and in housing too. Consequently, government lost its grip on the (re)structuring of urbanized areas in terms of the geography of urban development. That situation is not accepted by all people. Therefore, attempts are made to restore the policy in which the role of government is important. Current debates on housing focus upon efforts to avoid spatial concentra¬ tions of low income households. This paper discusses Dutch housing and policy developments over the past decades and illustrates that todays housing policy instruments -but also other instruments -are likely to be insufficient to have significant steering effects on present urban development processes. An increase of segregation of the popula¬ tion will be the result.

Christian social policy and homosexuality in The Netherlands, 1900-1970.

This essay explores the historical process in which homosexuality became an object for pastoral, medical, and mental health care in the Dutch Catholic community during the twentieth century. The confrontation between a moral-religious approach and the professional (medical and psychological) treatment of homosexuality is the central issue. In a continuing dialogue and a process of changing power relations between clergymen, physicians, psychiatrist, psychologists, and pedagogues as well as Catholic homosexuals themselves, homosexuality was transformed from sin and pathology into a psychological and social problem that could be treated in pastoral and mental health care. The changing attitudes of Catholics towards homosexuality can be explained in the context of the changing relations between religion on the one hand and health care on the other hand. Current viewpoints resulting from sociohistorical studies on the development of the medical and welfare professions have concluded that religion lost importance in modern society because physicians, psychiatrists, psycho-therapists, and social workers not only created new areas of intervention in people's private lives, but also took over the traditional tasks of the church in the field of charity and pastoral care. Medical anamnesis, psychoanalysis, and psychotherapy took the place of confession and pastoral care, thus the argument runs, and remission of sins and redemption were replaced by health and welfare. However, especially in the case of the development of the Dutch welfare state, there was a more complicated interplay between changing religious values and professional strategies. In the Netherlands professional health care and welfare institutions often were organized in a religious context and it is difficult to make a clear differentiation between religious and moral discourses on the one hand and medical and psychological ones on the other hand. Moreover, professional interventions did not take the place of pastoral care; it appears that pastoral care for homosexuals gained ground and was intensified after medical and psychological definitions of homosexuality had found acceptance in the Catholic community. Professional strategies did not supersede religion, but rather contributed to a moral re-orientation and a new pattern of Christian values and appreciations in the field of sexuality.

Social polarisation in a welfare state? Immigrants in the Amsterdam region

Abstract This article explores the effect of the recent decades’ de‐industrialisation on Mediterranean and Surinamese immigrant groups in The Netherlands and posits the question of whether social polarisation is an emerging reality. Analysis of developments on respectively the labour and housing markets provide a dual approach. In relation to employment, it is found that the Mediterranean groups, who generally do not display high educational qualifications, are disproportionately affected by unemployment or poor employment prospects. The Surinamese, who on the whole are characterised by higher educational achievements, have fared better but their situation still compares unfavourably with that of the Dutch. A sizeable entry onto the labour market of young Dutch has enabled employers to demand higher qualifications and language skills even for low skilled jobs. The traditionally strong Dutch welfare state has to some considerable extent mititgated the negative effects of de‐industrialisation, and this is p...

Expansion and Diversification of Public Administration in the Postwar Welfare State: The Case of the Netherlands

Although public administration is now taught in The Netherlands at 10 of existing 13 Dutch universities, Dutch public administration seems to be relatively unknown abroad. In 1984 revision of well-known German textbook on Verwaltungslehre by Theime, international survey indicates that Dutch public administration is offered only at Groningen faculty of Law and Free University of Amsterdam. In recent grundliche and comprehensive textbook on Offentliche Verwaltung by Becker (1989), Dutch public administration is also said to be taught only at these two places. Public policy and administration is, however, in reality, a separate, full-scale, regular degree program at Twente, Leiden, and Rotterdam Universities. In these three places, some 700 students enroll yearly making a total of over 2,000 students. The Twente Department of Public Administration has some 60 staff members, and combined Leiden-rotterdam department, well over 100. Apart from that, public administration is a specialization at another seven universities. The Netherlands suffers from tiny but crucial disadvantage that almost nobody in world reads Dutch. This article covers history and state of affairs of Dutch policy and administration sciences(1)--from educational perspective and from point of view of topics and trends in research--in relation to development of state and administration in The Netherlands. Postwar Welfare State and Administrative Science The creation of Dutch administrative science in mid-1960s and its subsequent rapid growth are related to postwar rise and expansion of Dutch welfare state. The enormous increase in public tasks and role of state in providing welfare arrangements in various policy sectors called for government planning and policy making. The traditionally weak central state, with most public tasks performed by the pillarized private initiative, now had to become actively involved in sectoral policy making and develop new policy instruments besides usual legislation and regulation, such as budgeting and planning systems. Legal expertise alone was no longer sufficient for this type of government planning. The days of legalistic state where law dominated study of administration were over. The welfare state was in need of other scientific support for rationalization of its sectoral policy design. This explains growing popularity of social sciences in general and rise and growth of Dutch policy sciences in particular. Dutch State and Administration Pillarization, Corporatism, and Consensus The three main characteristics of The Netherlands in 20th century are sociological characteristic of pillarization, socioeconomic characteristic of corporatism, and political characteristic of consensus-democracy (Hemerijck, 1992). Although Catholics were almost 40 percent of population in The Netherlands in 19th century, traditional Protestant conception that Catholics were second rate citizens still dominated. This tradition originated in successful 16th century struggle of Protestant-calvinist Dutch for separation from Catholic Habsburg-Burgundy Empire. The consequent necessity for Catholics to establish a countervailing social and political power accounts for pillarization of Dutch society (Kossman, 1986), which divided society along ideological rather tha-n class lines. Early 20th century Dutch society became divided along four pillars--Protestant, Catholic, Socialist, and Liberal-Neutral. The whole social organization of Dutch state, ranging from political parties, trade unions, employer organizations, schools and universities, health and welfare institutions, media organizations, and even sports clubs, followed these four divisions. Both Protestants and Catholics had clear ideological ideas about limitations on power of central state. …

Confusion behind the dikes

Twenty years ago Dutch society was hit by a serious rise of unemployment that put the Dutch welfare state to the test: Should the welfare state be able to preserve full employment and prevent unemployment from becoming high and chronic as in the 1930s? And should the welfare state be able to prevent mass poverty as in the 1930s? The answers are well known. The ‘Dutch welfare state has not been able to forestall persistent high unemployment and, in fact, has more or less produced a dual society (Zweidrit‐telgesellschaft, sociéte à deux vitesses), although without producing mass poverty. This article goes into three issues related to these developments. A bird's‐eye view is presented of the unemployment trajectory of the 1970s, 1980s and the first half of the 1990s. The position of the Netherlands relative to other countries in Europe is unfolded. Some issues concerning the effects of chronic unemployment on the functioning of the Dutch political economy are presented.

The Development of the Dutch Welfare State: From Workers' Insurance to Universal Entitlement.Robert H. Cox

<i>The Development of the Dutch Welfare State: From Workers' Insurance to Universal Entitlement.</i>Robert H. Cox