ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the validity of the claim often put forward of a seeming clash between the so-called rational and political reform perspectives. In this view, the effects of politics is considered detrimental to lasting and solid reform outcomes. We argue that pointing to this perceived conflict is rather simplistic from both a conceptual and an empirical perspective. Defining rational and political in a narrow way is (partly) at the root of the misapprehension of reform successes and failures. Furthermore, framing the issue in this way ignores the potential reform impacts of the existing and evolving institutional arrangements within a given political-administrative system. The effects of prevailing political-administrative arrangements, traditions, legacies, and models on reform are thus part of our discussion.
