Government
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While the private sector is the cornerstone of the Dutch economy, governments at different levels have a large part to play. Public spending, including social security transfer payments, is at 47.9% of GDP (2005). Total tax revenue was 37.5% of GDP (2005), which is below the EU average. In addition to its own spending, the government plays a significant role through the permit requirements and regulations pertaining to almost every aspect of economic activity. The government combines a rigorous and stable microeconomic policy with wide-ranging structural and regulatory reforms. The government has gradually reduced its role in the economy since the 1980s. Privatisation and deregulation is still continuing. With regards to social and economic policy, the government cooperates with its so called social partners (trade unions and employers' organizations). The three parties come together in the Social-Economic Council (‘Sociaal Economische Raad’), the main platform for social dialogue.
Read more about this topic: Economy Of The Netherlands
Famous quotes containing the word government:
“Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“[F]rom Saratoga [N.Y.] till we got back to Northampton [Mass.], was then mostly desert. Now it is what 34. years of free and good government have made it. It shews how soon the labor of man would make a paradise of the whole earth, were it not for misgovernment, and a diversion of all his energies from their proper object, the happiness of man, to the selfish interests of kings, nobles and priests.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“I’d wish the government took honest people into consideration, it shows enough consideration for scoundrels.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)