Policy analysis is a long-established field in the Netherlands, in academia as well as in practice. It makes the Netherlands one of the strongholds of policy analysis, one that certainly deserves attention in a special volume entirely devoted to the evolution of policy analysis. As the Dutch government adopted an Anglo-Saxon stance immediately after World War II, generations of students in Political Science and Public Administration have been educated and trained with American textbooks and are thus familiar with the essentials of policy analysis and, being in leading positions now, equipped to deal with complex and wicked problems in society.

The volume brings together contributions from key Dutch scholars as well as from practitioners working in the field, crossing the layers of government as well as the borders between policy domains. We would like to thank them all for sharing their insights and observations with a broader audience. We believe that the outcome is more than just a collection of loosely coupled articles. We hope that this volume will serve as a benchmark for countries that are just starting up and will induce a dialogue about the added value of policy analysis, especially now we are facing the far-reaching consequences of the sovereign debt crisis.

We are grateful to the series editors of the International Library of Policy Analysis – Iris Geva-May and Michael Howlett – for offering a platform for this book and for their guiding scholarship that has been an important inspiration. In addition, we would like to express our appreciation to the team at Policy Press for their dedication, patience and support. We are furthermore heavily indebted to Yneke Steegstra for helping us to meet the deadlines and the guidelines set by the publisher. Last but not least, we owe thanks to the board of the Comparative Public Services Innovation research group at the Erasmus University Rotterdam for its grant, which enabled us to deal with setbacks during the process.