Exit Polder Model?: Socioeconomic Changes in the Netherlands - Hardcover

Lei Delsen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0275977005 ISBN 13: 9780275977009

Publisher: Praeger (UK), 2002

Synopsis

To what does the Netherlands owe their recent economic success? Will the polder model become the victim of its own success or will the threat come mainly from outside? In the Netherlands, polder are small communities hemmed in by dykes built to resist quickly rising tides, and hence imply communal effort to mediate harmful outside forces. Translated into economic terms, the polder model entailed tripartite cooperation between business, government, and labor to protect the nation's economic and social well being. Delsen evaluates recent changes in the Dutch economy brought on by globalization and American dominance and concludes that the polder model is reaching its end.

Delsen argues that the market forces introduced by the purple governments imply a far-reaching adaptation of the unique Dutch economic order. The primacy of the market has resulted in a more flexible labor market, decentralization of the wage formation, modernization of the social security system, more competition on the goods markets, and liberalization and competition in the financial markets. More market forces within Dutch socioeconomic relations imply also that the aims of trade and industry have changed, and have become oriented toward short-term results and away from actions aimed at long-term continuity and consensus.

About this title

About the Author

LEI DELSEN is Associate Professor in the Department of Economics of the Nijmegen School of Management, University of Nijmagen, the Netherlands.

Edition details

• Publisher: Praeger (UK)
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0275977005
• ISBN 13: 9780275977009
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240