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The Politics of Welfare State Reform in the Netherlands: Explaining a Never-Ending Puzzle

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Abstract

The Dutch welfare state has always posed analytical and empirical puzzles, since existing theories cannot adequately explain the characteristic features of its welfare regime (especially its paternalism and generosity). We discuss two interconnected puzzles about Dutch welfare state development and propose solutions. First, we show that the Dutch exceptionalism is partly an artefact of mainstream typologies that confuse ideal and real types. We resolve this problem and characterize the Dutch welfare state as a very generous welfare system with strong but decreasing paternalist features. This is important because one can expect that reform, especially of generosity, involves a high potential for electoral backlash. Empirically, we observe that some Dutch coalition governments were very reluctant reformers, while others confronted the voters head-on in their attempts to restructure the welfare state's generosity. How to explain this puzzle? We propose an approach to risky welfare state reform that is rooted in prospect theory and that can explain the cross-government variation in reform.

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Notes

  1. This section partly draws on Van Kersbergen and Vis (2006) and Vis (2008).

  2. Note that the socioeconomic situation was fairly good. The level of economic growth increased during the cabinet period and the level of unemployment was stable at 4.7%.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Hans Keman and an anonymous referee for their helpful comments. Kees van Kersbergen wishes to thank the University of Konstanz Centre of Excellence ‘Cultural Foundations of Integration’ and especially their Institute for Advanced Study, for their generous hospitality and support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1081, Amsterdam, 1081HV, The Netherlands

    Barbara Vis & Kees van Kersbergen

  2. Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Uwe Becker

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  1. Barbara Vis
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  2. Kees van Kersbergen
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  3. Uwe Becker
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Vis, B., van Kersbergen, K. & Becker, U. The Politics of Welfare State Reform in the Netherlands: Explaining a Never-Ending Puzzle. Acta Polit 43, 333–356 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1057/ap.2008.11

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