The polder model () is a method of consensus decision-making, based on the Dutch version of consensus-based economic and social policymaking in the 1980s and 1990s.Ewoud Sanders, Woorden met een verhaal (Amsterdam / Rotterdam, 2004), 104–06.Stijn Kuipers, Het begin van het moderne Nederlandse poldermodel; De Hoge Raad van Arbeid van 1920 als eerste manifestatie van het Nederlandse tripartiete sociaaleconomische overlegmodel? (Nijmegen, 2015), 3. It gets its name from the Dutch word ( polder) for tracts of land enclosed by dikes.
The polder model has been described as "a pragmatic recognition of pluriformity" and "cooperation despite differences". It is thought that the Dutch politician Ina Brouwer was the first to use the term poldermodel, in her 1990 article "Het socialisme als poldermodel?" ("Socialism as Polder Model?"), although it is uncertain whether she coined the term or simply seems to have been the first to write it down.Ewoud Sanders, "Poldermodel", NRC Handelsblad, 22 April 2002.
The current Dutch polder model is said to have begun with the Wassenaar Agreement of 1982, when unions, employers, and government decided on a comprehensive plan to revitalise the economy involving shorter working times and less pay on the one hand, and more employment on the other,Elke van Riel, "Akkoord van Wassenaar keerpunt in relatie regering en sociale partners", SER Magazine, 2010 (versie 9) ( archived 15 April 2015). has increasingly steered in the direction of a neoliberal economic policy of privatisation and budget cuts.
An important role in this process was played by the Dutch Central Planning Bureau (CPB), founded by Jan Tinbergen. The CPB's policy advice since 1976, in particular with the Den Hartog and Tjan model, in favour of wage restraint, was an important argument, supportive for government and employers, that the unions could not easily counter. Many authors and researchers have argued that the importance of the Wassenaar Agreement has been largely overrated.Agnes Akkerman, "Zo historisch was het Akkoord van Wassenaar niet" , Radboud University Nijmegen, 2007 (retrieved 25 February 2015).Jaap Woldendorp, The Polder Model: From Disease to Miracle? Dutch Neo-corporatism 1965–2000 (Amsterdam, 2005), 267–69.Piet de Rooy, Republiek van rivaliteiten; Nederland sinds 1813 (2nd printing Amsterdam, 2005), 216–17.Stijn Kuipers, "Het begin van het moderne Nederlandse poldermodel; De Hoge Raad van Arbeid van 1920 als eerste manifestatie van het Nederlandse tripartiete sociaaleconomische overlegmodel?", Radboud University Nijmegen, 2015. Most of these writers have argued that considerable continuity can be seen from the 1950s onwards. Historian Stijn Kuipers, goes even further. In an article reliant on the work of Coen Helderman,Coen Helderman, "De Hoge Raad van Arbeid, 1919–1940(–1950)", Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis I:2 (2004). Kuipers argues that the modern socioeconomic polder model already manifested itself in 1920 with the Dutch High Council of Labour. It follows that the polder model is therefore much older and could have had a larger influence on Dutch society and economy than previously thought.
Another explanation points to the dependency of the Netherlands on international trade and the world economy. The Dutch cannot afford protectionism against the unpredictable tides of the international economy because the Netherlands is not an autarkic economy. To cushion against the international economy, they set up the Social-Economic Council, which oversaw an extensive welfare state. A third explanation refers to a unique aspect of the Netherlands, that it consists in large part of , land reclaimed from the sea, which requires constant pumping and maintenance of the dykes. Ever since the Middle Ages, when the process of land reclamation began, different societies living in the same polder have been forced to cooperate because without unanimous agreement on shared responsibility for maintenance of the dykes and pumping stations, the polders would have flooded and everyone would have suffered. Crucially, even when different cities in the same polder were at war, they still had to cooperate in this respect. This is thought to have taught the Dutch to set aside differences for a greater purpose.
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