What is a polder? The Dutch word polder technically means diked in and drained low-lying land. For centuries, the Dutch have reclaimed land from the sea and lakes to create polders. Because of the large geographic scale of polder regions, people from different communities must cooperate for the ongoing maintenance of dikes and constant operation of pumps. Without agreement and shared responsibility, the polders would flood.
Polders thus encourage cooperation, even between those with differences, to achieve common goals. The term polder extended into socioeconomic meaning in the late 20th century. Just as polder regions required mass cooperation to prohibit flooding, the struggling 1980s Dutch economy required unions, employers, and government to work together to find solutions. Through dialogue and agreement, stakeholders crafted a comprehensive plan to transform a foundering 1980s economy into a booming economy in the 1990s. Different–often competing–stakeholders dialoguing and cooperating for the greater good is at the heart of the polder socioeconomic model.
How could we further extend the spirit of polder? The potential applications seem endless along the spectrum of global concerns to local and personal interactions. International diplomacy requires dialogue. Negative environmental externalities cannot be resolved without cooperation. Locally, businesses can see themselves merely as cut-throat competitors with winners and losers or they can appreciate collectively building sector awareness and community–think of a “restaurant row”, for example. Individually, we can limit learning by not listening to others or we can enrich each other by sharing unique perspectives. What do you think about polder?
P. Gustav Mueller, author of The Present.