This chapter argues that the question of the policy instrument is central to the conceptu- alization and the understanding of changing forms of governance. However, it aims to disconnect this research question from the naive identification of ‘new policy instru- ments’ and ‘new governance’, a reification that was particularly strong in the European context of the ‘new Europe’ of the ‘new millennium’ and in the search in the USA for ‘new policy instruments’. The point is also to avoid the functionalism often associated with choice of policy instruments