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.
We therefore argue that the focus on the public policy dimension of governance and its operationalization, i.e. the choice of policy instruments, is a fruitful avenue to demonstrate and interpret changing forms of governance.