Various implementation studies examine the way in which control is exercised on policy implementers and the conditions that guarantee successful policy implementation, but these studies do not explicitly address the control function within government organizations. The controller can best be described as a liaison officer who passes on information to other actors and thus fulfils not only a controlling role, but also a facilitating role. The central question in this study is what influence the control function has on the implementation of subsidy policy at Dutch municipalities. To this end, two case studies have been carried out at two Dutch municipalities that have adopted identical subsidy regulations. The first municipality has set up a control function for the process of granting subsidies; the second municipality has not. Not only does it appear that the implementation at the first municipality is more in line with the subsidy regulation; even if the evaluation is placed in a broader perspective, the implementation in this municipality is progressing more satisfactorily. In this way, democratic control in this municipality is guaranteed more effectively and potential subsidy applicants find their way to this municipality more easily. The study also shows that the implementation of the control function leads to less demand on official capacity.

In regional energy strategies (RES) in the Netherlands, governments, the business community and social organizations reach agreements about sustainable energy generation. Because major interests are involved, it is necessary to anchor democratic legitimacy properly. However, this is not self-evident: there is no institutional structure for the RES within which a democratic framework and accountability are laid down. This article therefore focuses on the following design question: ‘How can the democratic legitimacy of the regional energy strategies as a form of regional governance be improved?’ It proposes improvements that increase the quality of decision-making in the RES regions. The theoretical perspective includes a conceptualization of democracy and legitimacy. The data for this study come from an analysis of the ways in which the Dutch RES regions of Twente and West Overijssel deal with this situation. Experiences with these interpretations were collected through literature research, document analysis and interviews with administrators, representatives of the people and the officials involved. Based on this, recommendations are formulated that contribute to improving the democratic legitimacy of the RES regions. The combination of democratic renewal and regional decision-making emphasizes the relevance of these outcomes for the follow-up process of the RES regions in the Netherlands: RES 2.0 will be determined in 2023, in which a shift will take place to more concrete search areas for sustainable energy.

Antonie Kleijn belongs to the list of legal scholars who helped shape the early history of (local) administrative sciences in the Netherlands, which was dominated by the legal approach by local government. He held the first chair in Public Administration in the Netherlands in Rotterdam, occupied by Gerrit van Poelje from 1928, left in 1933 and then taken over by Adriaan Koelma (first as a lecturer, from 1946 onwards as a professor) and David Simons (from 1948) from 1957 until his emeritus status in 1971. In his work, Kleijn has mainly dealt with the irrational reverse side of public administration. In contrast to almost all well-known authors on public administration, who invariably view administration from a rational angle, he primarily approaches administration in its irrational aspects. He also looks at the art of administration and the relationship between psychology and administration. The way in which he views the administration differs from his predecessors and is in line with his political and ideological starting points. As a moderate conservative, Kleijn favoured cautious, lived and experienced changes with an eye on the place of the individual within the community.

Arm’s length bodies are often used by Dutch municipalities for the implementation of local tasks. An arm’s length body is ‘a private-law or public-law organization in which the Dutch province or municipality has an administrative and a financial interest’. The use of arm’s length bodies is an international trend, but foreign knowledge is little used in the Dutch debate about arm’s length bodies. This essay provides an overview of what is known about these bodies from international public administration and places the Dutch situation in an international context. The authors then discuss some concerns about steering (control) that exist internationally and in the Netherlands about arm’s length bodies. They describe three concerns: concerns about information deficiencies, democratic deficiencies, and governance deficiencies.