the netherlands in the 1950’s. to bring the country back to normal: queen wilhelmina asked willem...
TRANSCRIPT
The Netherlands in the 1950’s
To bring the country back to normal:Queen Wilhelmina asked Willem Drees and
Willem Schermerhorn to form an emergency cabinet.
Drees was popular: a socialist that wanted to help the needy.
People called him “the angel of mercy”
Drees is Deputy Prime-Minister And Minister of social affairs.
1948: Drees becomes Prime-MinisterLeader of the PvdA partyLed Socialist/Catholic coalition government
until 1958.
The Netherlands were split up in 4 groups:CatholicsProtestantsSocialistsNeutral/ Liberal/the rest
Also called: compartmentalisationSegregation
No contact with other pillarsYour own pillar was familiar E.g. Catholic:Went to a Catholic schoolWent to a Catholic doctorWent to a Catholic butcherWent to a Catholic churchWent to a Catholic neighbourhood to liveWent to a Catholic factory to workRead a Catholic newspaperListened to the Catholic radio channel.
So it was hard to cooperate in the government
Catholics and socialists had to work togetherDrees was against pillarisation in politics and
social care.He wanted everybody to have the same
chances of good healthcare, education and support.
He wanted to stop pillarisation.
After WW II The Netherlands have to be rebuild.
People needed to cooperate.Drees asked people to accept low wagesLow wages lead to low pricesGood for export/trade
Government controlled prices and wages. Temporarily !!
Drees wanted social reformsCopied the British systemThe Netherlands became a welfare state. Unemployment benefit was paid by the state,
not by own pillar unions.The government took care of the people. Education would become state controlled
either. = Less influence of the own pillar
Drees introduces emergency legislation that provided a temporary basic state pension for elderly people.
Became permanent in 1956:AOW: Old Age Pensions Act. Everybody over 65 had a state pension.Drees was popular, but resigned 2 years later
over a dispute about taxes. Never left politics, until he died.
The end