The Contingency of Corporatist Influence: Incomes Policy in the Netherlands (original) (raw)

Wages and the bargaining regime in a corporatist setting: the Netherlands

European Journal of Political Economy, 2002

In a corporatist country like the Netherlands, wages should not be distinguished by union membership status, but by bargaining regime. Acknowledging the firms' bargaining regime, we find small differences between four regimes and certainly no distinction between "covered" and "uncovered" firms.

Responsive corporatism without political credit: social concertation, constructive opposition and the long tenure of the Rutte II cabinet in the Netherlands (2012–2017)

Acta Politica

This paper analyses the unexpected return of social concertation in the Netherlands under the Rutte II government (2012–2017). Despite political fragmentation, electoral volatility and intensified EU budgetary surveillance, between 2012 and 2017 the Netherlands witnessed several social pacts that proved vital to the enactment of long-awaited reforms, allowed the government to turn post-crisis fiscal deficits into surpluses, and helped regenerate economic growth. After describing the contextual differences with the Dutch ‘miracle’ years of the 1980s and 1990s, we reveal a novel institutional logic of responsive corporatism whereby, first, a social pact with civil society actors is agreed which, then, becomes a launching pad for the de facto minority government to enlist parties from the ‘constructive opposition’ in these agreements to deliver anticipated reforms. Unlike the 1980s and 1990s, however, pro-active engagement with the social partners did not pay out electorally, in partic...

Dutch Corporatism: Does It Still Work? Policy Formation and Macroeconomic Performance 1980–2005

Acta Politica, 2008

ABSTRACT This paper challenges the analysis of Dutch corporatism as evolving from a model of institutional sclerosis and political stagnation in the 1980s that transformed the Dutch Disease by means of the so-called Polder Model into the Dutch Miracle in the late 1990s. Two questions are addressed in this paper: Did corporatism contribute to effective policy formation (Central Agreements) between 1980 and 2005? Did Central Agreements improve macroeconomic performance? Corporatism did indeed contribute to effective policy formation but there is little evidence for an ineffective corporatist model in the 1980s or for an effective Polder Model in the late 1990s. Comparing the Netherlands with the other EMU member states shows that Dutch macroeconomic performance is not exceptional, negative (indicating Dutch Disease) nor positive (Dutch Miracle), and is not directly related to the behaviour of government and the ‘social partners’ or the effectiveness of the outcomes as measured by means of Central Agreements. Actors' behaviour as well as effective policy formation appears contingent on macroeconomic conditions and EU-driven developments.Acta Politica (2008) 43, 308–332. doi:10.1057/ap.2008.10

The Political Foundations of Inequality in Post-Industrial Capitalist Democracies

Does the organization of business matter for redistribution and labor market equality in post-industrial democratic capitalism‘ Conventional welfare state analysis has given this significant question scant attention. We argue, however, that high levels of employer organization, as well as the persistence of centralized bargaining and national policy formation between these well organized employers and comparably organized labor (or macrocorporatism), are likely to foster employer support for progressive policies, strengthen labor support for egalitarian policies that encompass the interests of labor market outsiders, and otherwise promote redistributive policies and outcomes. We test our arguments with quantitative analysis of early 1980s-to-2000s pooled time-series data from 18 nations as well as brief, illustrative case analysis of policy change in Denmark and Germany We find that highly organized employers as well as macrocorporatism are consistently, strongly, and positively rel...

Social Democracy Constrained: Indirect Taxation in Industrialized Democracies

British Journal of Political Science, 2007

The determinants of the welfare state have received a great deal of attention in the comparative political economy literature. An analysis of the role that indirect taxation plays in the politics of advanced industrial societies is, however, missing. This article demonstrates that a full understanding of the links between redistribution, social democracy and corporatism is impossible without a closer look at indirect taxation. Conventional wisdom is questioned and it is shown that social democratic governments in corporatist environments find themselves in a paradoxical situation. They need to support the welfare state by relying upon a fundamentally regressive policy instrument: indirect taxation. It is also shown that social democratic governments can minimize the use of consumption taxes as part of their redistributive strategy only in non-corporatist settings. In exploring these issues, this article illuminates alternative routes for the pursuit of equality in a context of declining corporatist arrangements.

On The Functionalities of Corporatist Political Structures in Post-Revisionist Social Democracy

REVIEW OF HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE, 2019

This paper argues that the recent resurgence of corporatist political bargaining arrangements in Europe can be traced to ongoing processes of European regional integration. European Union policies of political integration have "mandated" neoliberal policy reforms at the nation-state level that require reduced governmental commitments to producing egalitarian outcomes within capitalism. Contemporary corporatist political structures (which involve the institutionalized policymaking participation of trade union representatives in the reform process) have been created to secure working class acceptance of the reforms and, more broadly, to secure wide-scale acceptance of a new "post-revisionist" social democratic ideology.