The Dutch term used to describe the welfare state is ‘verzorgingsstaat’. ‘Verzorgen’ means ‘to take care of ‘, but also ‘to care’, and implies ‘to nurture’, ‘to tend to’ and ‘to nurse’. The word ‘verzorging’, for instance, also appears in the term ‘verzorgingshuis’ (nursing home). The distinct connotation of the Dutch term is paternalistic and reminiscent of charity in its emphasis on obligation rather than rights: it is the state’s obligation to help weak people in society. This connotation is heavily loaded by the heritage of religious political actors, especially the Catholic People's Party (Katholieke Volkspartij– KVP), one of the main original protagonists of a passive, benefit oriented conception of the welfare state (Van Kersbergen and Becker, 1988).

The seemingly literal translation of the term ‘welfare state’ as ‘welvaartsstaat’ was popular in the first years after the Second World War. The term quickly fell into disuse, however, partly because it was an incorrect translation of the English term (‘welvaart’ means prosperity), and partly because the Social Democrats, who adopted and preferred the term, lost the ideological language struggle with the Roman Catholics. The Social Democrats, too, started to use the term ‘verzorgingsstaat’, in addition to the more restrictive terms ‘social security’ and ‘social provisions’, which were the most common words used, at least until the 1980s. The term ‘verzorgingsstaat’ has prevailed in the political debate, especially since the mid-1980s. Most recently, however, the notion of ‘verzorgingsstaat’ seems to have lost its hegemony in political discourse, while no other expression has replaced it yet.

These shifts in descriptive terms can be taken as an ideational characterisation of the political struggle over social and economic policy in the Netherlands in the post-war construction, expansion and reform of the ‘welfare state’. This history starts in 1944, when the Committee Van Rhijn on Sociale Zekerheid (Social Security) produced a policy paper for the Dutch government in exile in London, based on the famous Beveridge Report (1942). It contained policy recommendations for insurance against sickness, accidents at work, disability, unemployment, and old age, but also for welfare (social assistance: ‘bijstand’, ‘steun’), a minimum wage, and protection against unfair dismissal, and marks the start of the acceptance of discussions, definitions and issues relating to the Anglo-Saxon term ‘welfare state’ in the Netherlands.