<i>’This path-breaking book, written by three well known experts, makes an extremely valuable contribution to the study of ''new'' environmental policy instruments as well as to much wider theoretical debates about governance, policy innovation, learning and transfer. Drawing on an unrivaled comparative empirical study of five different jurisdictions, it manages to make many new points about issues that many of us thought had already been settled.’</i>

<i>’This book represents a very rare achievement in that it combines detailed and up-to-the-minute empirical analysis of environmental policy over the past four decades, with a sophisticated discussion and critique of current theoretical issues in comparative and policy studies generally. It unfolds with a keen eye towards understanding the temporal dimensions of policy dynamics both in the specific policy field examined but also in terms of testing key analytical concepts. Taken as a whole it provides the most detailed empirical assessment to date of the general ''government to governance'' hypothesis, with significant implications for policy and governance studies in general.’</i>

- Michael Howlett, Simon Fraser University, Canada and National University of Singapore,