What Keeps the Dutch Up at Night?

The Dutch long had great confidence in their state, whose army of social and physical engineers could be trusted to shield citizens from hardship and to protect the huge amounts of reclaimed land (60 percent of the national territory) against flooding. Plainspoken and direct, the citizens of the Netherlands routinely assert the superiority of a national culture that—they claim—values individual freedom, mutual tolerance, state-managed solidarity, and a matter-of-fact common sense blissfully devoid of hang-ups, unnecessary moral restrictions, or artificial social niceties. No wonder they tend to come across as arrogant. Still, Dutch arrogance is not what it used to be. As cultural and political shifts have fueled new anxieties, collective self-confidence in the Netherlands has crumbled. Today, the bungling Dutch government no longer seems able to solve any of the country’s most urgent problems, let alone protect its citizens. Trust in politics has tanked. Close to a third of voters now support the far right.