The sour and sweet grapes of an institutional transition Impacts of institutional transitio.pdfVIP

th Paper for the Doctoral Workshop of the 11 International Research Symposium on Public Management (IRSPM XI) 2-4 April 2007 Postdam University, Germany The sour and sweet grapes of an institutional transition Impacts of institutional transition on public policy design in water management sector in the Netherlands 1 1 1,2 Niki Frantzeskaki , Martin de Jong , Pieter Bots 1. Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, PO Box 5015, NL- 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands, correspondence e-mail: N.Frantzeskaki@tbm.tudelft.nl 2. Cemagref, Montpellier Regional Centre, BP 5095, F-34033 Montpellier, France. Abstract The last decade a general shift has been realized in the water management sector in the Netherlands. The shift from a top-down (cooperative monopoloid) to a bottom-up institutional setting (cooperative multi-centric) was accompanied by various effects on the societal context. The benefits of the institutional shift do not only involve the most important actors (e.g. the Ministry of Transport and Water Management, the Municipalities) but also allows them to achieve their goals. The disadvantages of the institutional shift concern the long duration of the policy design process since issues and perceptions are steered in multiple phases and negotiated at all levels of institutional structuration. These undesirable effects can be considered as the im