[WJW]

Also needed is a very stable environment, but infrastructurally and politically. A lot of these investments would never be feasible without for example the stability of the electricity network or the road network.

It can be argued if this is caused by the government, but the Dutch seem more maintenance-minded than most other countries I visited. Probably caused by all the dikes: if not maintaining something properly will kill your entire village, you have a lot of incentive to become very good at it.

[bbvnvlt]

We have, in fact, a dedicated form of local government for water management [1], and:

> These regional water authorities are among the oldest forms of local government in the Netherlands, some of them having been founded in the 13th century.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_board_(Netherlands)