Dutch civil society at crossroads

Abstract

The Netherlands have a rather large civil society. Interestingly, Dutch politicians and civil society organisations do not recognise this themselves, voicing frequent appeals for more civil society. This can be explained by the typical development of Dutch civil society through a system of pillarisation, based upon concepts of subsidiarity and sovereignty in one's own constituency, leading to a civil society that at the end has outsourced to the government important functions like financing, governing, and legitimising. Two cases (traditional and contemporary) are presented to show the consequences. Finally, lessons for other countries at civil society crossroads are drawn.