Politics in the Dutch Economy: The Economics of Institutional Interaction

This work offers a survey of theoretical models of political economic interaction. The central empirical question is whether political motivations - electoral and ideological - affect the Dutch economy. It demonstrates that such objectives do play a role in Dutch political economic interaction, but not as predicted by the economic models; the Dutch institutional structure of policy making is particularly affected. It criticizes the idea that there is a stable Dutch model of making economic policies, and recognizes that neither mechanistic economic models nor structural theories provide a complete description of the way in which political motivations affect the economy. This book should prove of interest to economics and political scientists who want to learn more about the success of the Dutch model.