The dividing line between success and failure

Since the Second World War, liberalism has been much stronger in the Netherlands than in Germany. The present volume compares the development of liberalism in both countries - which took place under quite different conditions and without much mutual interaction - from the early beginnings in the nineteenth century down to the twenty-first century. It tries to explain why Dutch liberals are nowadays doing better than their German counterparts.

Patrick van Schie is director of the Telders Foundation, the Dutch liberal think thank. Gerrit Voerman is director of the Documentation Centre Dutch Political Parties, University of Groningen, the Netherlands.