The Netherlands: Final Piece of the Welfare State Is Still to Come

Abstract

In December 1994, the idea of a (modest) basic income was publicly supported by two members of the Dutch cabinet, both liberals (Holland¹ has two liberal parties: D66* and VVD*). However, the socialist members of the same cabinet dismissed the idea. Therefore, basic income did not become a policy item of the cabinet. Politicians of both sides nonetheless generated headlines in newspapers and attention on television. The basic income at that time was closer than ever to being accepted as an item on the political agenda in the Netherlands, even closer than in 1985, when the advisory body for the government WRR* proposed a partial basic income—and found no support whatsoever in the main political parties.