METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT AS A POLITICAL PET - REALISM AND TRADITION IN ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM IN THE NETHERLANDS

Despite a general (international) dislike of new administrative tiers of government and more bureaucracy in the 1980s. The Netherlands showed a sudden political consensus on the theme of metropolitan government at the end of the decade. The readiness of small countries to surmount political differences if their national position in the world-market is at stake offers a plausible explanation for this phenomenon. The wavering history of administrative reform in this country, however, demands some restraint in our expectations. The results may be less straightforward than hoped for by politicians who focus on economic arguments. The (political) geography of The Netherlands is proposed as an important complicating factor in the creation of metropolitan government on the current basis.