Innovation is a popular theme in society as well as in public administration. This essay focuses on innovations that take place within the realm of the public sector. How can these innovations be developed and what do we know about their adoption and diffusion? Is it possible to steer these innovations and if so, how can it be done? Based on analyses of recent scientific insights, Bekkers, Edelenbos and Steijn (2011) plea for an incremental adaptive evolutionary public innovation strategy. Within the framework of such a strategy, innovation has to be directed towards increasing the connective capacity within government. Also, the specific, political character of the public sector as the context of innovation has to be acknowledged. Furthermore, it is also important to find a balance between the logic of consequentiality and the logic of appropriateness. Based on dissertations by Huijboom (2010), Korteland (2011) and Oosterbaan (2012) the meaning of this evolutionary strategy for public sector organizations is explored.

Over the last decade educational regulation has changed dramatically. Attempts to develop more cost-efficient regulation and to reduce the regulatory burden paralleled an increased focus on student achievement and sanctioning of failing schools. Additionally, the Inspectorate of Education holds school boards (instead of school principals) accountable for the quality development of their schools. Also, a change in legislation now requires schools to establish an internal supervisory board and improve their accountability to stakeholders.

These changes greatly impact the role of the Dutch Education Inspectorate as they are placed in a polycentric, instead of a monocentric, steering context. This article discusses the new position and role of the Dutch Education Inspectorate and evaluates the extent to which the educational sector and the Inspectorate of Education meet the requirements of such a polycentric context.

Problems with the rivers were the incentive to change Dutch flood safety policy in 2000. ‘A different approach to water’ became the new policy slogan. Government presumes that public engagement in decision-making on flood safety will lead to more water awareness and risk aware behaviour. ‘No or hardly any negative side-effects’ are expected from this strategy. However, our research shows that public engagement in flood safety decision-making leads to fierce policy contestation, since proposed solutions do not meet the safety perception of local citizens. ‘A different approach to water’ strategy does not resonate in Dutch society because most people are convinced that government guarantees water safety. In this article we explain that this so-called ‘myth of water safety’ is based on a deep frame of risk control. We argue that flood safety needs to be reframed and that a new frame should be based on acceptance of vulnerability instead of risk control.

At first glance the notion that lower taxes will decrease the government deficit sounds like a nonsensical idea. Nevertheless this is one of the main arguments brought forward in Mitt Romney's bid to oust Barack Obama from the White House. In this essay, the author compares the arguments brought forward by the Romney campaign and other fiscal conservatives with those of their critics. He discusses the paradigms underlying Romney's fiscal conservatism from a mixed European/Asian perspective. The author argues that while lowering taxes may sound alluring during a political campaign, without them it will prove hard to maintain our standard of living.

Recent developments shed a new light on the role of Lipsky's classic analysis of the street-level bureaucrat. A growing number of social services is provided as a product of cooperation between different actors: government agencies, societal organizations, private businesses, citizens. As a result of this development, the street-level bureaucrat now increasingly operates in an interorganizational network, rather than within one single organization. This (partly) changes the dilemmas he has to deal with. The authors demonstrate this by analyzing the so-called ‘Achter de Voordeur’ projects, whereby house-calls of street-level bureaucrats are linked with full cooperation between local authorities.

This paper reviews developments in political-administrative relations in Dutch central government from 2002-2012. It highlights the strengths/weaknesses of Dutch structures and processes in managing the interface between ministers and the public service. It signals a number of key trends in the political context of executive government that are going to put pressure on the status quo, and examines the much more centralised and politically orchestrated Australian system for pointers towards possible ways in which these contextual changes are going to be.

Urban government is expected to contribute to the solution of major urban problems. At the same time, urban government is riddled with problems itself, often denoted in terms of governing and democratic deficits. In this article, options for governance reform in the urban realm are being explored along five lines, following up on recent research in the Netherlands and abroad. Both more aggregative arrangements (electronic ‘straw polls’, knowledge polls, prediction markets, ‘dot gov’ competitions for ‘best solutions’) and more collaborative arrangements (electronic co-creation, wiki governance, vital coalitions, urban regimes) are being assessed. The conclusions is that there are good arguments for, at least, more experimentation along these lines - not only from a functionalistic, but also from a democratic and social-psychological point of view.

Currently, Dutch cities are facing persistent societal problems as well as changing circumstances, due to the financial crisis and changing national policies. This special issue seeks to take analysis beyond a sense of mere crisis and investigates contemporary urban initiatives in order to discern what innovative modes of governance they offer.

This article investigates whether the local practices growing under the Wet Maatschappelijke Ondersteuning (Wmo; Law for social participation) can be viewed as examples of ‘transformation of the welfare state’-in-action. The article argues that indeed, a number of Dutch cities is trying to create a shift in the balance of responsibilities of citizens, social networks, civil society and government that can be judged an operationalization of the more abstract recommendations of many ‘welfare state reformers’. It remains to be seen however, whether these attempts will actually result in change. There are both practical problems and fundamental questions to be tackled. The question whether the transformation wished for by many from a political perspective, is actually feasible (given the political and societal constraints) should be addressed firmly by both local and national actors.As it goes, the opposite is the case: the question of the feasibility of the Wmo seems to have vanished in the void between parliament and municipalities.

The Dutch government is preparing a major new law on social security. Among other things, this law fundamentally addresses the current system of job provision for disabled workers. The article describes the proposed system change from the Schumpeterian perspective of creative destruction. The national government effectively tears up the current system but fails to offer a workable and effective alternative. The creative part of the process is left to the municipalities. The municipalities have to develop strategies for integrating disabled workers in the labour market, acknowledging the fact that demand for these workers is very low. The author presents two of those strategies that might effectively integrate disabled workers in the economy and society.

In 2010 and 2011 a committee of experts inspected if and how forty of the most deprived areas in Dutch cities have benefitted from the major national neighbourhood policy program launched by the previous government in 2007. The aim of the program was to restore living conditions in those areas within the next ten years, by investments in the physical, social and economic field, thus trying to improve the living conditions and chances (social mobility) of the neighbourhood citizens. According to the Committee, the forty neighbourhoods have proved to be laboratories for institutional change. There is growing confidence among local parties that with less disintegrated bureaucracy and more possibilities for citizen initiatives, interventions can be organised which are more effective and cheaper. Realising the objectives of the neighbourhood approach demands continuous involvement, effective organization, creative solutions and intensive contact between professionals and citizens. Government organizations and institutions need to relinquish control and facilitate and support the problem solving abilities of the professionals and citizens, who live and work in these neighbourhoods day in day out. In the most problematic neighbourhoods of Dutch cities, the seeds of the new welfare state are being planted.

Sustainability, the question of how our system of prosperity could be maintained, is one of the main issues of the coming decades. To combine economic growth and a pleasant environment, society needs to scale back its resource use and the ensuing pressures on the environment, by a factor of five. The challenge is to do more with less; something for which there is no instant solution. The city is the place where this change will begin, not by ‘big’ government with ‘big’ plans, but by the energetic society. Citizens and the business community are motivated by their wish for a clean economy and a pleasant living environment. The rise of the information society has increased their ability to exchange knowledge and ideas, releasing creativity and creating new solutions. If city governments are to tap into the strength of society, they must embrace the initiatives and join citizens and business in the empowered deliberative search for sustainable solutions. The goal of a clean economy is within reach, but it demands comprehensive physical and cultural change, in which local initiatives may lead the cultural change towards a broad vision of a strong, sustainable society. A large role for government remains, but high quality, low carbon cities may be the winners of the future.