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The Social and Cultural Report 2002

The quality of education, health care, the police and judicial services and other public provisions has been a constantly recurring topic of discussion in recent years. Complaints are frequently voiced concerning the waiting lists for medical care, the shortage of teachers leading to the dropping of lessons, and what many perceive to be the somewhat ineffectual attempts to combat crime. Not surprisingly, therefore, these issues featured prominently in the campaigns of the different political parties during the last Dutch general election. The Social and Cultural Report 2002 provides an inventory of the complaints and attempts on the basis of empirical material to determine how bad - and in some cases how good - the various forms of public service-provision in the Netherlands are, both objectively and in the public perception. It is this which has given the Report its subtitle, The Quality of the Public Sector.

The Social and Cultural Report is published every two years, and focuses on a different key theme each time. Based on this theme, each edition offers a broad overview of the main policy systems in the Netherlands in chapters dealing respectively with health care, employment, social security, housing, education, culture and justice.