Changing European States, Changing Public Administration: Expansion and Diversification of Public Administration in the Postwar Welfare State: The Case of The Netherlands

Abstract

Until the 1960s, the Dutch state was characterized and limited by “pillarization,” “corporatism” and “consensus-democracy.” Its public administration reflected the juridical perspective that dominated continental European administration during the 19th and 20th centuries. The rise of Dutch administrative science in the 1960s is related to the postwar expansion of its welfare state. The growing welfare state needed scientific support for policy making and planning. Legal expertise alone was no longer sufficient. The one-sided orientation in U.S. literature in the 1970s made way or a growing self-identity and self-confidence. Dutch administrative research today has reached a relatively high level of maturity, which might possibly contribute to the development of a new kind of European thinking about public administration.

Citation

Kickert, W.J.M. (2006), "Changing European States, Changing Public Administration: Expansion and Diversification of Public Administration in the Postwar Welfare State: The Case of The Netherlands", Otenyo, E.E. and Lind, N.S. (Ed.) Comparative Public Administration (Research in Public Policy Analysis and Management, Vol. 15), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 793-810. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0732-1317(06)15037-X