Business Power in Fiscal and Economic Policymaking During Postwar Reconstruction in the Netherlands, 1945 to 1950

This study examines the role of business in tax policymaking through the lens of business power, focusing on the 1950 Tax Revision in the Netherlands as a historical case. The revision policy process unfolded in the context of post-war economic reconstruction and industrialization and became a key site of contention between fiscal and economic policy objectives, in which business interests were strongly represented. Combining historical methodology and process tracing with theoretical perspectives of business power, the study identifies the mechanisms through which business-government interactions operated in the tax policy process. Corporate actors advocated for fiscal relief by exploiting intra-governmental differences and leveraging their structural economic importance and close connections to the government. Crucially, they constructed a narrative framing fiscal relief as a necessity for industrial development, thereby using the reconstruction context to advance their interests.