The rise and fall of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) should be seen in the context of broader changes in the socioeconomic structure of the Netherlands after about 1870. In an ongoing study of the Dutch economy in the twentieth century, Jan van Zanden has developed the concept of the “long” twentieth century to describe these changes. In the decades after 1870 three interrelated processes of structural change began; these processes dominated economic life during the twentieth century. These three changes are the rise of trade unions, the growth of the managerial enterprise, and the development of the welfare state. After about 1900 these changes accelerated, reaching full maturity after 1945. Since the early 1970s all three seemed to be in decline: union membership fell, the crisis in the welfare state led to large-scale cuts in welfare provision, and the large multinationals radically decreased their share of total employment due to downsizing, increased subcontracting, and intense competition from abroad. Economic development since the early 1980s has been characterized by (1) increased flexibility in the labor market (in spite of trade union resistance), (2) a government that officially aims at reducing its role in the economy, and (3) the decline of (large-scale) industry and the great increase in (small-scale) service employment (Van Zanden 1997).

The rise and decline of SOEs in the long twentieth century is another feature of these interrelated processes. The forces that contributed to the rise of the welfare state and trade unionism, for example, also favored increased direct state intervention in production through the establishment of SOEs and the nationalization of private enterprises.