Funding Liberation: Dutch Development Aid, Tax Havens, and the Decolonization of the Netherlands Antilles

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the political implications of neoliberal ideas in the context of Dutch development policies regarding the Netherlands Antilles during the 1970s and 1980s. It sheds light on both the intellectual history of neoliberalism in the Netherlands and the history of the Dutch Empire. More specifically, it examines how the Dutch perception of the offshore industry as a development tool gradually entered the development discourse and how this affected the relationship between the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles. It is argued that the neoliberal zeitgeist gradually provoked development policies to encourage the Antilles to be incorporated into the international economic structure including limiting the role of the government and encouraging privatization, liberalization, and deregulation in the Antillean economy. This, however, did not constructively contribute to the decolonization process of the Netherlands Antilles.