The Netherlands is often regarded as one of the strongholds of policy analysis, both in academia and in policymaking. Few countries have such a high density of institutes specialized in policy analysis and in few countries such institutes have played and continue to play such a key role in policymaking as in the Netherlands. Policy analysis clearly is an authoritative factor without which it is impossible to comprehend the dynamics of policymaking and politics in the Netherlands. This is also reflected in the strong presence of policy analysis in research groups and teaching at Dutch universit ... More

The Netherlands is often regarded as one of the strongholds of policy analysis, both in academia and in policymaking. Few countries have such a high density of institutes specialized in policy analysis and in few countries such institutes have played and continue to play such a key role in policymaking as in the Netherlands. Policy analysis clearly is an authoritative factor without which it is impossible to comprehend the dynamics of policymaking and politics in the Netherlands. This is also reflected in the strong presence of policy analysis in research groups and teaching at Dutch universities. The aim of this book is to provide an overview of developments in policy analysis in terms of academic thinking as well as in terms of its role in policy and politics in the Netherlands. It brings together contributions key Dutch scholars in this field as well as from practitioners from institutes specialized in policy analysis. The book captures the diversity of academic thinking and policy analysis practices as evolved in the Netherlands over the last decades. Furthermore, in each of the contributions we will substantiate empirically the role that policy analysis can play in the Netherlands by looking not just at cases from various types of institutes but also from different policy domains, such as financial policies, public management, education policies, welfare state policies, water governance and migrant policies.