Browsing by Author "Raadschelders, Jos C. N."

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6

Between Ecology and Economy: From Rigid to Flexible Water Defense Systems in the Netherlands
(1992) Raadschelders, Jos C. N.
"The leading question for this paper is thus: What changes in the institutional arrangements in the Netherlands are required to make a shift from a rigid to a flexible water defense system possible? "In order to analyze this issue we will briefly outline our theoretical framework (section 2) and describe the institutional environment of Dutch water defense (section 3). In this section we will in broad outline describe the development of water defense systems. Some illustrations will indicate why flooding is such an important issue in the Netherlands. We will then describe current Dutch policy and environmental critique (section 4). More than other sections, section 4 shows how passionate the different points of view are defended. Next we will present types of rigid and flexible systems together with their (dis)advantages (section 5). These too will be clarified by means of illustrations. Drawing upon the information from sections 3 to 5 we can analyze the institutional impediments against a change from a rigid to a more flexible system (section 6). In the final section we shall attempt to provide provide an answer as to how government can steer between economic and ecological interests."
Dutch Water Control Systems, 900-1990; A Multifunctional Common Pool Resource: A Research Proposal
(1991) Raadschelders, Jos C. N.
"During the 8th and 9th centuries the people living in the Low Countries, presently known as The Netherlands, experienced a major change in the physical-geographical environment in which they lived. Up to then they had inhabited a mainly dry land, shaped during the last ice age (Pleistocene; diluvial grounds)and the following warmer period (Holocene; alluvial grounds) starting 10,000 B.C. and continuing to the present day. "At several instances in the last millennia this territory was penetrated by the sea, a phenomenon geologists call transgression,followed by periods of retraction (also known as: regression). During a regression phase the coastal area was protected through the build-up of an array of dunes. Due to global changes in weather, temperature,and sea currents, the Low Countries suffered a new sea-penetration from the eight-hundreds onwards, referred to as the medieval transgression. This changed the environment entirely, especially in the western (coastal) part of the country. The higher diluvial grounds in the east and south were by and large unaffected"
Modernity and the Challenge of Metropolitan Governance: Failure of Structural Solutions and the Polycentric Alternative
(1999) Raadschelders, Jos C. N.; Toonen, Theo A. J.
"It will come as no surprise that throughout the 20th century various avenues have been proposed,and some experimented with, to 'solve' the problem of metropolitan governance once and for all. Our thesis in this paper is that the 'solutions' advanced so far,as idea or as experiment, aimed at being permanent. By the nature of, at least: Dutch, thinking about government, the solution to metropolitan problems was usually found in structural arrangements rather than through process-approaches. A permanent structural solution in the Netherlands focuses on redefining jurisdictions, on developing legal means to further voluntary or mandatory joint provisions, or on establishing a fourth tier of government. The idea that solutions could depart from a process angle, e.g. arrangements for decision making and consultation, is only toyed with in academic pursuits and rather weakly applied in covenants. We will argue that a real solution to the problems of metropolitan governance is only possible if it establishes flexible arrangements for governance, and hence are a combination of structural and processual approaches. It is in this combination that the polycentric perspective offers a 'global age' alternative to the structural modernistic approach."
Nine Centuries of Waterboards in the Netherlands: From Autonomy to Interdependence
(1991) Raadschelders, Jos C. N.
From Introduction: "What happens when a common pool resource that has enjoyed considerable autonomy for centuries suddenly becomes intertwined with public administration at large? From their beginning up to some twenty years ago, Dutch waterboards operated successfully and almost independently from general purpose (municipal, provincial and national) government. But within less then two decades, the intergovernmental relations between waterboards and general purpose governments has intensified enormously. In this paper we analyze the organizational changes in Dutch waterboards within the framework presented by E. Ostrom (1990). Some of the recent changes in waterboards will be illustrated with examples from waterboards in the province of Zeeland, since they were the first to anticipate and act upon them. In order to understand the magnitude of these 'recent' changes, we first describe the changes in the geographical environment and the development of Dutch waterboards from their origins up to the early 1970's (sections 2 to 4). The changes in the period 1970-1990 are then discussed in more detail in section 5. After a short theoretical interlude (section 6), we discuss two cases regarding the province of Zeeland (sections 7 and 8). In the concluding section, we suggest a tentative response to the central question of this paper."
Plaatselijke Bestuurlijke Ontwikkelingen 1600-1980; Een Historisch-Bestuurskundig Onderzoek in Vier Noord-Hollandse Gemeeten
(1990) Raadschelders, Jos C. N.
"Voor U ligt een onderzoek naar de ontwikkeling can bestuur in gemeenten. Er is veel onderzoek gedaan naar gemeenten, maar uit de literatuur die voor dit onderzoek is geraadpleegd sprigt een opmerking telkens weer naar boren: naar het schijnt is de behoefte aan historisch en vergelijkend onderzoek can bestuursverschijnselen groot."
Representatives and Bureaucracy in the Netherlands
(1990) van der Meer, F. M.; Raadschelders, Jos C. N.; Roborgh, L. J.; Toonen, Theo A. J.
"Representativeness of bureaucracy has been a topic of research and discussion ever since it became a political issue. For The Netherlands this has been the case from the beginning of the 20th Century, more strongly however since the Second World War. This advent of an issue coincided with a marked increase in tasks taken up by local and central government respectively. Overall, government permeated society to a degree that was hitherto unknown. Related to this economic growth (industrialization) and political emancipation of non-involved Citizens (lower income groups, Catholics) made the larger public more aware of the importance of representative bureaucracy. Al l this is not to say that representation had not been important untill the late 19th Century. Indeed, applicants for political-administrative posts were discrimitated up to this time on political and (mostly) religious grounds."