A History of Classical Liberalism in the Netherlands

Edwin van de Haar

Econ Journal Watch, 2023, vol. 20, issue 2, 368–401

Abstract: The Dutch contributed in several ways to the development of classical liberalism and many of these contributions are still visible in current Dutch society. Main examples are found in the development of capitalism, including free trade and stable institutions, and pleas for freedom of conscience and other personal liberties. Some of these ideas have roots in the writings of great Dutch writers, such as Erasmus, Grotius, Spinoza, Pieter and Johan de la Court, or Bernard Mandeville. Into the 18th century, however, Dutch classical liberalism lost its vitality and ascendance. From the mid-19th century onwards, social liberalism started to take over as the dominant liberal variant in Dutch politics. Generally, classical liberal influence waned, persisting with the odd exception now and then, for example through the work of thinker-politician Frits Bolkestein in the 1990s.

Keywords: Grotius; Pieter de la Court; Spinoza; Mandeville; Thorbecke; Bolkestein (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A11 A13 B13 B2 B53 O54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://econjwatch.org/File+download/1279/VanDeHaarSept2023.pdf?mimetype=pdf (application/pdf)
https://econjwatch.org/1329 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ejw:journl:v:20:y:2023:i:2:p:368-401

Access Statistics for this article

Econ Journal Watch is currently edited by Daniel Klein

More articles in Econ Journal Watch from Econ Journal Watch Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jason Briggeman ().