The responsiveness of social policies. Explaining institutional change in three policy domains

Abstract

This article analyses and explains the responsiveness of social policies by comparing the impact of institutional logics, public preferences and external conditions on the evolution of three social policy domains in the Netherlands. It focuses on the institutional development of the policy domains of social assistance, labour market regulation and sheltered work over the last 15 years. The article integrates exogenous and endogenous explanations for institutional change. It shows that the analysis and explanation of processes of institutional evolution require in-depth analysis of the interaction between public preferences, the institutional logic and external conditions of the policy domains.