Notes are just that: Short, informal messages, or brief records of points or ideas written down. The views and opinions expressed in my notes do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of my employer or clients.
In this edition of my notes, the focus will be on a distinctive set of local government institutions in the Netherlands: The Water Boards. The reason for this is my new assignment, via BMC, as an interim program manager and strategic advisor on energy transition and circularity at one of the 21 water boards, specifically the oldest one: Hoogheemraadschap Rijnland.
Water boards are unique local government institutions that merit some attention and provide me with an opportunity to delve into intriguing research on long-term institutions.
God Created the World, but the Dutch Created the Netherlands
A water board (waterschap or hoogheemraadschap) is a public entity overseeing water management in a specific region in the Netherlands. The term 'water board' also designates the region over which that institution has authority, determined in part by municipal or provincial boundaries, but primarily by river basins or drainage areas in a specific region.
Water boards constitute the foundation of the Dutch 'polder model.' Traditionally, their role involves managing water systems on behalf of the residents of a specific area, with a primary focus on maintaining water levels. The 1848 constitution assigned the task of water management to the water boards, partly to prevent municipalities from resolving water issues on their land independently, potentially shifting the problem to neighboring municipalities (a clever governance trick).
Each water board comprises an elected general board and an executive board, both chaired by a Dijkgraaf (dyke count). The general board includes representatives from stakeholders such as landowners, land tenants, businesses, and residents. Sometimes referred to as the united assembly, the general board selects a number of its members to participate in the executive board. The election of the general board does not attract a lot of voters, In 2023, only 53,7% of eligible voters bothered to cast their vote.
Water boards stand as some of the oldest institutions in the Dutch political system. With the Great Reclamation in the 10th century, the Dutch landscape underwent cultivation. The subsidence of the soil and claiming land from the sea necessitated the establishment of polders and drainage systems. Before the feudal era, this responsibility fell upon a neighborhood assembly. Under the influence of changes in feudal law and governance, local polder administrations began collaborating from the 13th century onwards, eventually leading to the formation of water boards. The first official water board was the Hoogheemraadschap van Rijnland, established in 1255 by Count Willem II of Holland.
Is the water board a deep-time organization?
So, my new interim assignment as the choreographer of sustainability is with an institution that has been continuously operating for 769 years. This places it squarely in a special category of institutions called ‘deep-time organizations’—institutions that must exist over deep time and address deep-time challenges.
The demand for deep-time organizations is rising with the recognition of the Anthropocene and its novel challenges in earth system governance and planetary stewardship (e.g. governance of geoengineering, seed-banks, carbon capture and storage, nuclear waste). However, political and social sciences lag behind in conceptualizing and empirically investigating how organizations could function over very long periods.
While researching the history of the Hoogheemraadschap Rijnland in preparation for my new assignment, I recalled an article by Hanusch and Biermann (2020) on Deep-time organizations: Learning institutional longevity from history. This study is a pioneering attempt to explore deep-time organizations and develop initial hypotheses about design features that might enable societal and political organizations to survive and fulfill their mission over extended periods. The authors formulate 12 initial design principles that, if supported by further empirical research, could lay the basis for construction and design.
Out of curiosity and with the hope of having secured an assignment at a deep-time organization, I checked how the water board aligns with the design principles outlined by Hanusch and Biermann for such organizations (see below). The result is a perfect score of 12 out of 12. The water board seems well-suited to truly be a deep-time organization.
This quick exercise was useful in another way as well. It provided me with a meta-perspective on my operational assignment, which, at first glance, is mainly operational. Essentially, my assignment will involve managing the tension between principle 6 (focus on core business) and principle 9 (respond to external events), in this case, climate change and the need for the energy transition.
The water board tested against the design-principles for deep-time organizations:
Location (place the organization in a safe area while ensuring its societal embeddedness): Fulfilled. The physical threat to the institution is water, ironically linking the mission of the organization to the physical risk it faces.
Purpose (link the organization’s purpose to a public purpose): Fulfilled. Water safety and water quality are as important as any public purpose can be, particularly in an area that is nearly entirely below sea level.
Members (ensure continuous support of (democratically legitimized) elites from the foundation onward): Fulfilled. Historically, all key actors and local rulers have been involved, and through self-interest, have supported the institution. It has also had democratic legitimization for centuries.
Involvement opportunities (involve those who you need to fulfill your purpose): Fulfilled. Over time, the water boards have been able to adjust, for example, by adding nature management organizations to their formal stakeholder structures.
Networks connected to (connect to the state and ensure its support in times of crisis): Fulfilled. The mission and existence of water boards are enshrined in the constitution.
Places of outreach (do not diversify but instead identify core places of outreach and cherish them): Fulfilled. Water boards have avoided mission creep and have stayed on message. Actually, this principle is now an obstacle when it comes to their role in and their contribution to the energy transition (essential but not strictly core business).
Organigram (prominently involve the public in the management): Fulfilled. With an elected general assembly, formal involvement of all relevant stakeholders, public and political responsibility of its officers.
Decision-making procedures (create ownership and responsibility for the public in decision-making): Fulfilled. All decision-making is done through well-established bureaucratic procedures and by elected representatives and officers.
Reaction to external events (outlive external events by declaring change to your core business, incorporate change evolutionarily in the organization, or be recognized as system-relevant): Fulfilled. Water boards have always been ‘system relevant’ and, in their responsibility for water safety, have included external risks in their mission and incrementally added external changes into their operations (e.g., now the necessity to deal with the energy transition).
Issues distributed (distribute a basic human need or a transcendental good): Fulfilled. The water boards provide an undisputed human need - water safety and water quality.
Ways of dissemination (become a benevolent monopolist with direct lines of dissemination that are socio-culturally embedded): Fulfilled. As a governmental organization, water boards have a monopoly and historically and organizationally, they are fully embedded in society and culture.
Feedback on delivery (make the people recognize the organization as a prototype delivering real-world change or stability they gain individual benefit from): Fulfilled. Obviously, water boards provide a service beneficial to individuals and society as a whole and provide stability in terms of water quality and safety