FD Column by Laura van Geest: 'A Capable Government, From Promise to Action'

Article

10/04/26

A government that acts decisively and without hesitation; it is easier said than done. This is also because the definition of a capable government varies considerably. A special task force is now tasked with getting things moving. What is the best way to do so, asks AFM CEO Laura van Geest in her periodic column for the Financieele Dagblad. The column appears online on Fridays (behind a login) and in the physical newspaper on Saturdays.

A capable government. The Jetten cabinet has even established a task force to make progress in this area. A noble goal, but what exactly do we mean by it? 'A capable government' is a shiny object onto which everyone can project their own image. For some, it is a government that meets the needs of its citizens. Like a director ensuring private services that are not automatically available or accessible. Such as housing, transport, energy, and healthcare.

Wrong Policy

That this does not always work out well is no secret. In the entire West, for example, complaints about housing shortages are common. The cause of this is wrong policy, argue Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson in their book Abundance (2025), in which they examine the situation in the United States. There was too much focus on demand support and redistribution, and too little attention to creating supply. Spatial planning rules left ample room for NIMBYism, obstruction by current homeowners. Building is fine, just not in my backyard. And high demand with insufficient supply mainly leads to higher prices and budget shortfalls. The authors therefore advocate fewer rules. But a different approach, a change in behavior, can also work wonders for processing times: pragmatic risk management, parallel processing, standardization, and above all, collaboration.

You can also define a capable government more narrowly – as a government that has its own services in order. There is room for improvement there as well. The Public Prosecution Service was brought to a standstill this summer after a hack. Our infrastructure suffers from deferred maintenance, resulting in detours, lower speed limits on the roads, and freight restrictions. And asylum seekers are housed in hotels because structural facilities are lacking. How does that happen?

Poor Service Delivery

Sometimes policy seems almost cynical. Substandard service delivery then functions implicitly as a policy instrument. Poor reception facilities thus act as a deterrent, even though asylum is a timeless phenomenon. Furthermore, reception can be cheaper and less polarizing if we dare to face that reality.

In addition, there is the dynamic of politics itself. The Hague kilometer rewards media-friendly soundbites and images. The bridge that is opened makes the front page; the bridge that is repaired does not. Announcements attract all the attention, while realization or accountability much less. Prince's Day is celebrated, but Accountability Day is forgotten. But without visibility, there is no political future. The often advocated reduction of the distance between policy and implementation is important, but the difference in pace between the two is at least as relevant: the fast beat of politics versus the slow beat of realization.

Slow Legislative Process

The legislative process itself is rarely efficient. Departments standardly account for a processing time of over two years. That processing time can increase further because emergency debates on today's riots take precedence over tomorrow's legislation. An example from AFM practice: the Amendment Act on the Accounting Sector will, if all goes well, take effect on July 1. The consultation on the first version of this law began in July 2021. And was in turn the fruit of an AFM report from late 2018. Depending on how you count, the process took five to seven years. This gives a special weight to the Jetten cabinet's intention to scrap five hundred rules every year.

Opportunities of AI

Viewed even more narrowly, the government is a benefits and tax collection machine. Much regulation is complex, but the government is not alone in that. Financial institutions also deal with complicated processes and are fully experimenting with AI. This presents opportunities. Many decisions are complex but entirely rule-driven. In countries like Estonia and Finland, AI is already taking over part of the work. Opportunities, then, if we dare to embrace them, especially after the hack at the Ministry of Finance.

The 'Blik op Nederland' dashboard by the Court of Audit is primarily a scoreboard. It shows where the government falls short or where goals may have been chosen too loosely. However, the challenge is not the goals, but the execution. That must change. Fewer rules, says one, better organization says another. I wish the task force much creativity and wisdom.

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