The participation society and the attack on disabled and neurodivergent people

CW: Ableism, Bureaucratic fuckery 

A little while ago while browsing the news I stumbled upon a strange occurrence. I found a news article which told the story of a woman living in the Dutch municipality of Wijdemeren and how she was apparently eligible for a fine of about 7000 euros(now reduced to 2835 euros after a political uproar) because she was given groceries on a regular basis by her mother while also receiving social assistance and welfare benefits(1). 

This is an outrageous story about how a woman got punished by the Dutch state and social services for receiving help from her well meaning mother and although she deserves justice, her story is not exactly new to me. I myself have also been punished by Dutch social services for receiving help or due to circumstances beyond my control on numerous occasions. This is not exactly new but I am using this story as an example because it shows very well the results of the participation society and how neoliberal policies punishes people on a daily basis. 

Before we begin however we need to bring some context to this all. What is the participation society? What are these neoliberal policies and how do they hurt people?

1. A little history of the "Participatiemaatschappij"(Participation society)

The term "participatiemaatschappij" was first used by King Willem-Alexander in a yearly speech during the Rutte II cabinet on the 17th of September 2013. 

"It is unmistakable that people in our current network and information age society have become more vocal and independent then ever before. In combination with the need to push back the (sic, financial) shortages of the government has this lead that the classical welfare state will change slowly but surely into a participation society. Everyone who is able are asked to take responsibility for his or her's own life and environment"(2)

The Netherlands has since the 1950's built hard on creating a solid and robust welfare state so this speech was very confusing to a lot of people. The general gist of it was that it was an excuse to get rid of the former welfare state (which former conservative/liberal coalition governments categorized as being "unsustainable") and to leave people to their own devices. This large break with the past was also noticeable outside of the Netherlands. The London based Financial Times called it a "Goodbye to half a century of egalitarian thinking" and the New Zealand Herald opened a headline with "Dutch King says Goodbye to Welfare state"

Although the term did not enter the Dutch vernacular before 2013, the idea's behind it are not new. In the 80's conservative CDA minister Eeelco Brinkman often complained about the fact that citizens and institutes were leaning too heavily on government funding and that the Netherlands should strive to be a more "sustainable society". In 1991 then PvdA(Labour) vicepremier and minister of Finances Wim Kok used the term "participation society" to convince his supporters that the welfare state was too expensive(The Dutch labour party made a large turn rightwards in the mid 1980's, to the point that nowadays they are considered to be Liberals in Social-Democratic clothing by most leftists in the Netherlands. Something that caused them to suffer the largest electoral defeat in Dutch history in the 2017 general election when they lost 29 seats). (3)

From the mid 1980's till now, governments of the Netherlands have tried their hardest(thanks the neoliberal wave brought on by foreign heads of state like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan) to cut government spending as much as possible and the participation society is another one of those measures. The liberals of the past often claimed that it was a more sustainable way to help those in need but as I myself am a legally disabled person, I have seen the truth of it and it is not as full of sunshine and lollipops as many liberals say it is. I have experienced it as a at best major bureaucratic pain in the ass and at worst as a flat out attack by the state on my livelihood and personhood. 

The largest break from the old welfare state however came in 2007 when the "wet maatschappelijke ondersteuning"(Law for societal support) came into force. This law changed social services so that the responsibility for social services came into the hands of local municipalities rather then the state. Due to liberal bureaucratic fuckery proved most municipalities to be ill equipped to this task. It was assumed that rather then instantly asking social services for help, this would instead force people take care of themselves and people next to them. It was assumed that this would strengthen "social cohesion" and that this would let people experience solidarity with each other(4).

While I do think that social cohesion and solidarity is a good thing, it is not surprising that reality turned out to be completely different. As it turns out is it really difficult to build solidarity when you just remove the social safety nets and don't instruct people on class consciousness or solidarity theory. Big surprise there...   

2. The results

Implementation of the participation society has been a huge goddamn mess. The term was vague, confusing and everyone had their own ideas of what it meant. When people asked the government for clarification they basically shrugged their shoulders and went: "I dunno". The implementation of the new WMO in 2007 went with a reorganization of social service offices and the results have ranged from annoying, to goddamn life threatening. I have yet to encounter someone who has ever had a positive experience at social services. 

The austerity cuts that happened after the financial crisis of 2008 only exacerbated the problem. Hundreds of social service(and healthcare) employees were fired and the entire thing was reorganized AGAIN. Those that managed to keep their jobs often had their salaries cut to the point that many of them were forced to find other jobs in the private sector which is often inaccessible to low income disabled people. As a result are many social work organizations, underfunded, underemployed and barely functioning. This has created extremely long waiting lists for therapies or other treatments which usually has a negative impact on the mental health of people.  Often our only options are either waiting for treatment that may never come or go into the private sector that no one can afford.

This end result only shows to me that whatever lies were told about "social cohesion" and "helping finances" were only excuses by the Neoliberal cabinets to cut funding on social services and healthcare and to let the "invisible hand of the market" fix it. I remember getting into a major fight online with a self identified neoliberal some time ago about why I was so staunchly opposed to their ideas and I can safely say that the reason for this is because I have seen the results of their ideas put into practice. Neoliberal policies only exist  to benefit the wealthy at the expense of everyone else. I have personally experienced being cut away from programs or being unable to get the help I needed because of this. 

I was diagnosed as Autistic in a strange time period. Kind of an in-between with the old welfare state and the participation society and I can safely say that things have only gotten worse. Getting a welfare indication is near impossible nowadays. 

 The social cohesion that was promised is quite obviously non existent. People often lack the information to navigate the social system and they also often lack the financial needs to deal with hardship. In 2017 and onwards it became very clear that the participation society was a giant failure but the government persists going into this road of destruction.(5). 

It should come as a surprise to no one that this is also a factor in the rise of conspiracy theories and the far right in the Netherlands in this regard. People who feel like their government have abandoned them make easy targets for far right agitators like Thierry Baudet and his FvD and others. It should come as no surprise that the Dutch far right has become a major force in Dutch politics in this time period(though it should be noted that this was part of a major upswing of far right politics in Europe in general at the time). These agitators wasted no time to blame the hardships of this to some kind of scapegoat(Muslim immigrants are often blamed). Now that the COVID-19 pandemic has shown the whole world of the incompetence of European governments in dealing with something like this, the far right and antivaxxers are stronger then ever.

3. What is next?

We are are standing at a crossroads. After 20-30 years of Neoliberalism, it has become quite clear that Neoliberal policies and politicians are either unable or unwilling to really change the status quo for the better. The participation society is only one example of this but it is an important one. The former Dutch welfare state definitely had issues but it was a fine breeze in comparison to what it has turned into. 

If the remnants of the former welfare state continue to deteriorate without any well functioning apparatus to replace them then civil unrest in the Netherlands will only continue to grow. Reactionaries over here often complain about the Netherlands being ruined by "left wing hobbies" but those left wing hobbies are exactly what we need right now. We need true Socialist policies to counter the rise of far right extremism and the decay of our society. The simple Socdem ideas as espoused by the SP, GroenLinks and PvdA are insufficient in this regard. Bij1 is to my knowledge the only political party that has the policies to deal with this. 

Furthermore grassroots activism needs to be done to protest the constant austerity cuts on healthcare and social welfare. Grassroots activists are already working hard on this but it should be made very clear to the country that people are suffering and that change is needed. Us Dutch people often like to pride ourselves on our "progressive" values, then we should prove it. Fight the injustice of the Dutch state wherever possible and fight for a better world for disabled and neurodivergent people.

Sources and References(mostly in Dutch):

1. https://nltimes.nl/2021/08/23/welfare-fine-partly-scrapped-woman-received-groceries-mother

2. https://web.archive.org/web/20180920122829/https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/toespraken/2013/09/17/troonrede-2013

3. https://www.canonsociaalwerk.eu/nl_wmo/details.php?cps=19

4. https://www.wbs.nl/publicaties/de-moderne-verzorgingsstaat

5. https://www.ad.nl/politiek/participatiesamenleving-teveel-gevraagd-van-burger~ad96ee44/