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Free keywords:
British Politics; Political Science; Political Theory; International Relations
Abstract:
The ‘Dutch model’ has become a catchphrase for progressive European politicians pondering the possibilities of a new ‘third way’ capitalism that reconciles employment growth with equity in an era of economic internationalization. The key proponents of the third way — Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, and more recently Gerhard Schroeder — all admire the Dutch policy mix of fiscal consolidation, wage moderation, and consensual welfare and labour-market reform which has maintained overall social security. The Netherlands, they observe, is the only EU member state to have more than halved its unemployment rate during the past decade, from over 13 per cent in 1983 to 4 per cent in 1998, while the EU average has continued to hover at around 10 per cent (OECD 1999). The average annual rate of job growth during the past decade and a half has been 1.8 per cent, accelerating to 2.2 per cent in 1997 and 1998, far above the 0.4 per cent EU average.
