ABSTRACT
This chapter describes policy problems, and gives an ideal-typical description of possible policy styles, in the environmental sector. It illustrates the changes in water management in the Netherlands. The chapter examines the changing nature of policy problems and the changes in policy style associated with it. This analysis issues in an argument that stresses the value of an incremental approach to policy in the case of present-day 'wicked problems'. The chapter addresses whether the open-policy style described earlier amounts to a full reinstatement of the traditional Dutch culture of governance. It turns out that in a number of policy sectors in the Netherlands, the old administrative 'polder-infrastructure', with its representation of various consultation partners, is still intact. The re-invention of the tradition also throws a different light on the lengthiness of decision-making processes involving a variety of interested parties, which such a policy style does indeed entail.
