Liberalism in the Netherlands

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Liberalism in the Netherlands started as an anti-monarchical effort spearheaded by the Dutch statesman Thorbecke, who almost single-handedly wrote the 1848 Constitution of the Netherlands that turned the country into a constitutional monarchy.

In contemporary politics, there are both left and right-wing parties that refer to themselves as "liberal", with the former more often espousing social liberalism and the latter more often espousing liberalism. A common characteristic of these parties that they are nominally secular, in contrast to the traditionally dominant and still popular Christian democracy.^[1]

In the contemporary economic situation, even though the markets for basic needs services like food and clothing are still subject to economic liberalism, this is not the case in housing, in child education, health care and payment services. For example the health care system does not satisfy basic requirements for being a market economy because in the distribution of goods and services the offered supply is not subject to patients demands, like this is the case in Germany.

This article gives an overview of liberalism in the Netherlands both as a movement politically espoused by the leading parties and what is actually implemented as liberal economic policy.