The Netherlands

Recently, interviewing Philip Huyck in the WAIS TV series, I remarked that there are few well-known Dutch authors. We could think only of Erasmus, who was an international figure, and Grotius, whose On the Law of War and Peace foresaw a community of mankind based on trust. At the time the Netherlands was a great maritime power with an empire. Today its clean politics put those of Belgium to shame. In a new book What is Troubling the Trilateral Democracies?, Robert Putnam, Susan Pharr and Russell Dalton find that, of the countries studied, the Netherlands is the only country where the faith in democracy has not declined. Does this mean that an imperial tradition makes a country world-conscious and more responsible? The case of Victorian Britain suggests that this may be the case. Perhaps it is also the Puritan tradition, which of old set standards in America. The fact is that there is less public corruption in Protestant than in Catholic countries. See the accompanying posting on scandal in the Catholic Church.

Ronald Hilton - 7/25/99