Lecture 1 – Dutch Culture

Hofstede’s National Culture Model

- Hofstede describes culture as “collective mental programming of the human mind which
distinguishes one group of people from another. This programming influences patterns of
thinking which are reflected in the meaning people attach to various aspects of life and
which become crystallised in the institutions of society”
- Includes Symbols (flag), Heroes (King William Alexander of Orange), rituals (King’s Day),
values and practices (Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet)

Chapter Summaries

- C.24 In Foreign Eyes

- The perspective of the Netherlands that other nations held were based on their own context
(e.g English viewed the Dutch in a negative light and overindulgent as they were maritime
rivals and thus held anti-Dutch sentiments)
- Contrarily, German and French intellectuals found Netherlands to be a safe haven for
enlightenment and tolerance
- C.6 Distinctive within the Global Fold?
- Netherlands has the second largest volume of exports in the European Union and has
historically been a global player in terms of trade, storage and logistics
- Transition from physical labour to service jobs in the last 50 years
- C.5 Randstad Holland
- 40% of the population and 50% of jobs are concentrated within 20% of the national land
surface
- This is referred to as Randstad Holland and includes the four cities of Amsterdam, The
Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht, within the provinces of North-Holland, South-Holland and
Utrecht.
- The rate of population growth has slowed down compared to the other Dutch cities. Largely
due to transportation developments and other infrastructure

Lecture 2 – National Culture by Contrast

Characteristics of the Dutch Population

- Protestant/Calvinistic
- Egalitarian
- Individualistic
- Business-oriented
- Pragmatic

Dimensions of Hofstede’s Model

- Power Distance
- Individualism vs Collectivism
- Masculinity / Femininity
- Uncertainty Avoidance
- Long Term / Short Term Orientation
- Indulgence / Restraint
Eringa et. Al

- This paper discusses the relevance of Hofstede’s model and critiques its use of sample size
and demographic as well as mentioning its outdatedness
- The study replicated Hofstede’s work and found that although absolute scores differed from
the original study, rankings of the countries were relatively the same

Dimension Score Explanation

Power Distance 38 Aversion to class structure and
hierarchical behaviours
Individualism 80 Self reliant and self sufficient
Masculinity 14 Empathetic and supportive
attitude rather than
competition
Uncertainty Avoidance 53 Somewhat uncomfortable
when encountering an
ambiguous situation
Long term orientation 67 Accommodate change rather
than practice traditions
Indulgence 68 Work to live and enjoy life

Lecture 3 – Pillarization

History

- William of Orange led the Dutch Revolt in 1568

- Republic of 7 United Provinces
- Pacification of 1917 enabled equal voting rights for men and women and allowed equal
funding for private and public schools
- Created a vertically pillarized society, segregated by religious views
o Each pillar had its own institution for school, newspapers and political party
- Theories for pillarization:
1. Emancipation Theory – peacefully integrate new emerging social groups into Dutch
Society (De Haan 2014:35)
2. Preservation Theory - Aside from schools, many other ‘pillarized’ organizations were
founded to screen the faithful from the siren songs of modernity (Bos 2014: 165)
3. Political Mobilization Theory - “[…] the leadership of the pillars mobilized its
members […] which could function as the storm troopers in the struggle between
political elites” (De Haan 2014: 35)
- Depillarization of Dutch Society from 1960 onwards due to secularisation, higher education
levels and greater disposable income

Knippenberg

- Discusses relationship between church/religion and state

- Religious freedom after emancipation from Spanish Rule, however some religions were only
tolerated instead of persecuted
- Church is an organisation of people whereas religion is the faith itself
- Consocational Democracy has 4 essential features
 Grand coalition Elites of each pillar come together to rule in
the interests of society because they
recognize the dangers of non-cooperation
Mutual veto Consensus among the groups is required to
confirm the majority rule. Mutuality means
that the minority is unlikely to successfully
block the majority. If one group blocks
another on some matter, the latter are likely
to block the former in return
Proportionality Representation is based on population. If one
pillar accounts for 30% of the overall society,
then they occupy 30% of the positions on the
police force, in civil service, and in other
national and civic segments of society
Segmental autonomy Creates a sense of individuality and allows for
different culturally-based community laws

Leeuw

- Pillarized television provided a sense of community for members of that pillar

Van Vree

- Audiences learned the values of their pillar from what they see in the media they consume
which is associated with their pillar
- This article discusses censorship in the media by each of the pillars to push forward their
own ideology

Chapter Summary

- Broadcasting companies were associated with a specific pillar when they were first founded,
producing content that expressed their pillars’ cultural identity

Lecture 4 – Political Stage

Chapter Summaries

- C.1 Citizens, Coalitions and the Crown

- Large number of political parties
- 75% turnout rate of voters during elections
- Three ideological party “families”: social democrat, liberal and Christian democrat
- C.2 Politics between Accommodation and Commotion
- Discusses the transition from a pillarized society to a depillarized society
- C.3 Economy of the Polder
- The poldermodel allows for a consensus to be made on decisions for the collective good of
the economy e.g the Wassenaar Agreement in 1982 between government, trade unions and
employment organizations
- Decision making is much slower as debate and compromise is required as opposed to one
CEO making the decision
- C.4 Dilemmas of the Welfare State

Type of Welfare State Characteristics

 Liberal Small, stigma, income differences
Social-Democratic Generous, right, equality
Conservative Moderate, morality
- Dutch Welfare state is conservative and based on Christian values

Holsteyn & Irwin

- Analyses the lead up to the 2002 election and what made Pim Fortuyn a favoured candidate
- Concludes that Fortuyn was popular because he was critical of the government and took a
stand against growing immigration

Holsteyn & Andeweg

Lecture 5 – Toleration

Chapter Summaries

- C.9 A Tradition of Tolerance

- Tolerance is an inherent part of Dutch culture from its Golden Age in the 17th Century where
freedom of conscience was permitted
- Discusses how the perspective that the Dutch are tolerant is not true
- He says it is not tolerance out of principle, but rather pragmatic as it allows for mutual
benefit

Kennedy

- Postulates that the presence of Orthodox Christianity in Netherlands discouraged discussion

on Euthanasia
- Absence of eugenics movement, coercive medical establishment and totalitarian
dictatorship allowed for a different perception of euthanasia separate from the Nazi’s
- The Dutch felt that new technologies and changing times meant that sense of morality
needed to evolve as well
- Dutch Euthanasia focuses on individual choice rather than societal impact

Lecture 6 – Education

Chapter Summary

- C.20 Excellence and Egalitarianism in Higher Education

- Issue of quality vs equality when providing education

Seixas

- Debates different ways to teach Dutch history and what should be included as part of the
collective memory
- Finds that schools should provide students with the foundation of a collective memory from
which they can extrapolate

Hofman & Hofman

 - Factors related to choice of school include quality of education, rules of admission, travel
distance and denomination
- Better discipline in religious schools

Lecture 7 – Integration

Chapter Summaries

- C.10 From Colonial Past to Post Colonial Present

- Colonial presence, particularly in Indonesia
- Decolonization following world war ii
- Migration of Indonesians to Netherlands was insignificant compared to mass migration of
both Surinam and Antilles
- C.21 Immigration and Diversity
- Repatriates from newly independent Indonesia and guest workers from turkey, morocco and
Surinam after WWII
- ‘Minorities policy’ introduced separate facilities, infrastructure and communities for
migrants, similar to pillarization
- Integration policy replaced the minorities policy and moved the focus from culture to social
and economic participation. This was allowed to pass due to the purple coalition of 1994 and
lack of religious sentiment within government

Bax

- Transition from consensus society to class society following depillarization

- Rise of an underclass due to long term structural unemployment

Lecture 8 – Migrant Groups

Dagevos & Gijberts

- Post colonial migrants integrated better than labour migrants

- Second generations integrate better than first

Week 9 – Cultural Diversity

Slootman & Duyvendak

- Culturalisation and Emotionalisation of citizenship is less about rights and duties but rather
norms and values of a culture

Week 10 - Populism

Kessel

- Availability of electorate
- Availability of credible leaders
- Failure of other parties to address issues