Faced with an aging population, creaking health care systems and a swelling tide of red ink, leaders have vowed to cut taxes and government spending and make it harder for people to get unemployment and disability benefits.
In the Netherlands, "There are major differences on how the modern welfare state should operate," said Paul de Beer, a professor of labor relations at the University of Amsterdam.
The rightist governing coalition says the traditional Dutch system of collective bargaining and social consensus is not suitable for a more competitive world.
"One of the guiding principles of this cabinet is that people should be more responsible for their own lives," said William Lelieveldt, spokesman for the Finance Ministry.
Lelieveldt said the government realized the changes would cause hardship, but added: "Obviously there is no reform without the pain it causes in society."
Angry workers say this is not the "Dutch way."
"The Dutch way is to take care of people who have less," said Gerard Admiraal, an emergency services worker who attended a protest at Schiphol airport Tuesday.
During the 1990s, economists praised the Dutch system of consensus between workers and employers, which was dubbed the Polder model, a reference to the country's low-lying land recovered from the sea - and an image that evokes the huge collective efforts to build the dikes that keep the seawater away.
Under the Polder model, the Netherlands was described as an economic miracle in Europe, with unemployment dipping to near 2 percent and economic growth consistently higher than its neighbors.
But two years ago the Dutch economy began to crash. Growth today is below zero and the government is borrowing heavily to pay for its deficit - which at 3.2 percent of gross domestic product last year violated the European Union's rules.
Last week, the Dutch finance minister, Gerrit Zalm, said the Polder model was no longer appropriate for the Netherlands.
"No substantial change in social security and social insurance ever happened in the polder model - only in a conflict situation," Zalm told Reuters.
