Editing Polder model (section)

==Historical background==
There is no consensus about the exact historical background of the polder model. In general, there are three views on this subject. One explanation points to the rebuilding of the [[Netherlands]] after [[World War II]]. [[Corporatism]] was an important feature of [[Christian democracy]] and particularly [[Catholic]] political thought. During the postwar period, the Catholic, Protestant, Christian, social-democratic, and liberal parties decided to work together to reconstruct the Netherlands, as did [[labour union]]s and [[employers' organization]]s. Important institutions of the polder model like the SER were founded in this period. No single political party has ever had anything approaching an overall majority in parliament, so a [[coalition government]] is inevitable. This makes parties extremely cautious, since today's enemy may be tomorrow's ally, all the more so in present times when the perceived death of ideology has made it possible for almost all the parties to work together.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

Another explanation points to the dependency of the Netherlands on [[international trade]] and the [[world economy]]. The Dutch cannot afford [[protectionism]] against the unpredictable tides of the international economy because the Netherlands is not an [[autarkic]] economy. To cushion against the international economy, they set up the [[Social-Economic Council]], which oversaw an extensive [[welfare state]].{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} A third explanation refers to a unique aspect of the Netherlands, that it consists in large part of [[polder]]s, land reclaimed from the sea, which requires constant pumping and maintenance of the [[Dyke (construction)|dykes]]. Ever since the [[Middle Ages]], when the process of land reclamation began, different societies living in the same polder have been forced to cooperate because without unanimous agreement on shared responsibility for maintenance of the dykes and pumping stations, the polders would have flooded and everyone would have suffered. Crucially, even when different cities in the same polder were at war, they still had to cooperate in this respect. This is thought to have taught the Dutch to set aside differences for a greater purpose.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}