1. The Netherlands in the 1950’s

2. To bring the country back to normal: Queen Wilhelmina asked Willem Drees and Willem Schermerhorn to form an emergency cabinet. Drees was popular: a socialist that wanted to help the needy. People called him “the angel of mercy”

4. Drees is Deputy Prime-Minister And Minister of social affairs. 1948: Drees becomes Prime-Minister Leader of the PvdA party Led Socialist/Catholic coalition government until 1958.

5. The Netherlands were split up in 4 groups: Catholics Protestants Socialists Neutral/ Liberal/the rest Also called: compartmentalisation Segregation

7. No contact with other pillars Your own pillar was familiar E.g. Catholic: Went to a Catholic school Went to a Catholic doctor Went to a Catholic butcher Went to a Catholic church Went to a Catholic neighbourhood to live Went to a Catholic factory to work Read a Catholic newspaper Listened to the Catholic radio channel.

10. So it was hard to cooperate in the government Catholics and socialists had to work together Drees was against pillarisation in politics and social care. He wanted everybody to have the same chances of good healthcare, education and support. He wanted to stop pillarisation.

11. After WW II The Netherlands have to be rebuild. People needed to cooperate. Drees asked people to accept low wages Low wages lead to low prices Good for export/trade Government controlled prices and wages. Temporarily !!

12. Drees wanted social reforms Copied the British system The Netherlands became a welfare state. Unemployment benefit was paid by the state, not by own pillar unions. The government took care of the people. Education would become state controlled either. = Less influence of the own pillar

13. Drees introduces emergency legislation that provided a temporary basic state pension for elderly people. Became permanent in 1956: AOW: Old Age Pensions Act. Everybody over 65 had a state pension. Drees was popular, but resigned 2 years later over a dispute about taxes. Never left politics, until he died.

16. The end