The welfare state

  • History on education

    → first laws passed in 1803 relating to primary schools
    → beginning of 20th century almost everyone went to school
    → 1860s artistic schools opened up and later higher technical schools for men
    → women were preparing an emancipation movement (Aletta Jacobs, first woman to attend technical school, but only as observer)
  • Period: to

    Development welfare state

  • 1848

    The constitution states to be more accountable for the poor and for education
  • 1870s

    First social welfare laws were introduced
  • 1870s

    The Dutch welfare state was modelled on Bismarck’s system. England had at the same time a welfare system as well, but just in the 20th century the system was comparable to Bismarck’s system
  • 1874

    Van Houten's child law was passed. Van Houten was also responsible for a law extending men over the age of 25 could vote (important step towards democracy)
  • 20th century welfare state in the Netherlands

    → period leading up to the first war, the number of needing care increased
    → welfare state takes form of a social contract
    → social contract aimed at reaching common agreement between those in society who owned the factories and workhouses and those who worked there - both to support the existing capitalist economic system
  • 1901

    Accident insurance law was passed
  • Post war era

    → after the second world war, the Dutch government took recommendations of the Van Rijn Commission on a post-war social security system
    → how much people earned decided how much unemployed people would get
    → the government took it upon itself to provide for the costs of a safety net
    → the Catholic party strongly disagreed, with the desire to keep the role of the state limited
    → so you had the Catholics on one side and the Social Democrats and the Liberals on the other side
  • Dutch version of welfare state

    → 1946-1958 the religious faction had a majority in ruling the coalition, this resulted in paid employment as a precondition for social security insurance
    → Labour party fought for pension for elderly in 1946
    → the introduction of basic pension (AOW)
    → 1949 unemployment benefit law was passed
    → 1950s laws were passed for people who were chronically sick
    → 1962 a child support law came onto the statute books
    → 1967 the WAO (law of disabled) was passed on
  • Education after 1970

    → education became an instrument for promoting self-respect and ambition
    → educational aspect in welfare state- provide skills and get ahead of society
  • 1980s

    → the era after the second world war up to mid 1980s was a period of expansion of the welfare state
    → from the mid 1980s a new policy was adopted of trying the scale down the welfare state
  • The main problems 1980s

    • The internationalisation and globalisation
    • The shift in demographics
  • Women enter the labour force

    → accommodating women in the existing welfare laws and provisions that were traditionally for men
    → unfair payment and less chances than men
  • Welfare state in bad shape

    → early 1980s the Dutch economy was in bad shape
    → people were earning the same and benefits were cut by 3%
  • Mid 1980s

    → people were still wrongly declared unemployed and benefited from the money (shadow)
    → government reduced the number of these kinds of benefit claimants
    → mid 1980s Lubbers reformed the social security system, an attempt to reduce the number of (shadow)
    → costs were not easy to control
    → the conditions attached to receiving benefits, such as the obligation to find work, became more strict
  • Education after 2000

    → impact of education was really obvious
    → women and men same chances
    → less physical labour and more technology