MICHIEL S. DE VRIES is Professor in Public Administration at the Institute of Management Research of the Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Other books he has written/edited are: Calculated Choices in Policy Making (Palgrave, 2000), Improving Local Government (Palgrave 2008, together with PS Reddy and Shamsul Haque), Beyond Blame: Technical Assistance to CEE Countries in Transition (NISPA, 2009, together with I. Sobis) and Value and Virtue in Public Administration (Palgrave 2010, forthcoming, together with Pan Suk Kim).

• Foreword Explaining and Predicting the Nature of Policy Change The Idea of Policy Generations Changing Relative Attention Generations of Policy Instruments The Changing Roles of Societal Groups A Model of Fundamental Policy Change and a Final Test References Index