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Visiting the Netherlands: land of social peace and hidden conflicts?

‘Food for Thought’ Radboud University Nijmegen, November 2015 Prof.dr.ir. Jan Terpstra. Visiting the Netherlands: land of social peace and hidden conflicts?. Ruth F. Benedict (1887-1948). Ruth Benedict: ‘A Note on Dutch Behavior’ (1944). The typical Dutch are:

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Visiting the Netherlands: land of social peace and hidden conflicts?

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  1. ‘Food for Thought’ Radboud University Nijmegen, November 2015 Prof.dr.ir. Jan Terpstra Visiting the Netherlands:land of social peace and hidden conflicts?

  2. Ruth F. Benedict (1887-1948)

  3. Ruth Benedict: ‘A Note on Dutch Behavior’ (1944) The typical Dutch are: • self-confident, moralistic, convinced of having Right on their side, proud of disrespect for authority; • strong faith in civil liberties; • tolerant (but in their speech they may be intolerant and condemnatory); • puritan, tidy, prudent, thrifty, cautious; • they like to ‘run things down, even their beloved country’; • their behavior does not include flattery and they do not like medals and parades; • individualistic, but also family-oriented; • very serious and ‘do not enjoy the lighter things in life.’ (Reprinted in: Van Ginkel, 1990)

  4. ‘A Guide to the Dutch’ 1. The Dutch are tolerant and love their freedom 2. They value equality 3. They are open and extravert, but not very focused to showing respect to authorities; they are generally more interested in sincerity (which may result in being noisy) 4. Although Dutch society is highly secularized, Calvinism is still strong in society, resulting in moralizing 5. The Dutch believe in consensus 6. Just behave in a ’normal’ way: ‘just act ordinarily, because that is worse enough’ 7. The Dutch are sparing and thrifty. 

  5. Three historical factors contributing to Dutch culture • A republic, not a kingdom; no central powers, but decentralization; no military traditions. Resulting in an egalitarian culture. • Dominance of Calvinism: work ethic, austere way of life, pessimism, individual responsibility, moralizing. • Early capitalism: open and international orientation, individualism

  6. Rembrandt: The Night Watch (1642)

  7. Jan van der Vucht, Church of Rotterdam (1637)

  8. Citizens’ satisfaction with life (EU and NL) (EU = green, NL = yellow) (2013)

  9. National distribution of household income, 10 EU countries (GINI index, 2013) Source: Eurostat, CBS

  10. Gini index, national distribution of income (income after tax) (2010) Source: LIS database (2015)

  11. Poverty in EU-countries (% of population) (2006) Source: CBS, Eurostat

  12. Number of days with strikes 2009-2013, EU-countries Source: CBS, ETUI, Eurostat

  13. Number of prisoners (per 100.000 inhabitants) (2014) (Source: WODC, CBS, 2015; *data 2013

  14. Institutional forms and (hidden) conflicts in the Netherlands

  15. Pillarization, Polder Model and Consensus Politics: in the future? • Creating new problems (Polder model: slowness, delays, lack of transparency and accountability, inefficiency) • Social and economic changes (form modern to late modern society): secularization, individualization, loss of authority, stronger belief in neoliberalism (markets), and new political movements.

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