Premium
Confusion behind the dikes
Author(s) -
Visser W.,
Visser Wessel
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of social welfare
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.664
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1468-2397
pISSN - 0907-2055
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2397.1995.tb00094.x
Subject(s) - unemployment , poverty , welfare state , welfare , economics , confusion , development economics , state (computer science) , youth unemployment , position (finance) , politics , full employment , labour economics , political science , economic growth , market economy , psychology , law , finance , algorithm , computer science , psychoanalysis
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.