A National Case-Study of Embedded Neoliberalism and its Limits: The Dutch Political Economy and the ‘No’ to the European Constitution

Abstract

When the Dutch, with an unexpectedly large majority, voted ‘Nee’ to the European Constitution, it became apparent that even in the traditionally pro-European Netherlands the project of European integration had entered into a serious legitimacy crisis. Many were quick to proclaim that the resounding ‘No’ vote to a large extent reflected several socio-cultural anxieties over European issues — such as a possible future accession of Turkey — that had little to do with the Constitution as such. Too little attention, however, has so far been paid to underlying socio-economic concerns that may be seen as indicative of an erosion of legitimacy of the output of socioeconomic governance at both the national and European Union (EU) levels.¹ In other words, the No vote may have been a manifestation of the legitimacy crisis of embedded neoliberalism as analysed in Chapter 1 of this volume. Whereas the latter chapter analysed the nature, contradictions and limits of this transnational project at the EU level, this chapter takes the Netherlands as a national case study of embedded neoliberalism. Here, I maintain that the rejection of the European Constitution may in part be seen as a manifestation of the failure of this hegemonic project in terms of sustaining the necessary levels of mass legitimacy. The main purpose of this chapter is thus to gain deeper insights into how the contradictions of embedded neoliberalism unfold in a national context. This in turn will help us to understand the limits of the European project as a whole and its likely future transnational dynamics.