Conclusion on the Data

Abstract

Mercier and his colleagues draw from the data on instrument use of the preceding chapter to offer some unusual and possibly innovative thoughts on the interaction between government and governance modes, two policy configurations usually seen as opposites. These two presumably opposing procedures are in fact tied together in a complex and back and forth movement of policy evolution, so that governance can even be seen as preparing and enhancing the process of proactive government. The authors then call upon notions of social sciences and economics to better understand their overall results. They find that continuity in transport policy is illuminated by the sociological notions of path dependency, historic and cognitive institutionalism, and culture, while the notion of isomorphism, the tendency to imitate successful organizations, can be called upon to explain some of the changes occurring in this policy area. The authors refrain from a prematurely normative-prescriptive position, by calling upon institutional economics to draw our attention to the transactions costs involved in the much-praised governance configuration of policy.