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By analysing the case of the closure of the Amsterdam shipyards in the 1980s, this article shows how the European Commission (EC) actively promoted a neoliberal turn in policies on state support for economic sectors in Western Europe. In addition to the EC, leading civil servants within the Dutch ministries of Economic Affairs and Finance emerged clearly as embracing neoliberal ideas early on as an answer to tackle the economic crisis of the 1970s. A third, often neglected factor in explanations for the rise of neoliberalism were management consultants – in this case from management consultancy firm McKinsey – who wrote alarming reports about the shipbuilding industry and promoted ideas that emphasized the importance of business principles and individual managers as key for improvement, thereby offering an alternative to macroeconomic Keynesian models of growth.

By looking at the policy termination of state aid to shipbuilders in Amsterdam, this article illustrates how a major policy paradigm shift within recent history, and the change from Keynesian to neoliberal policies, can be explained. The article is informed by a multilevel governance approach to policy change analysis and is based on different types of sources. It presents an in-depth case study of the closing of the Amsterdam shipyards and analyzes the role of policy change at different governance levels (i.e., city government, national Parliament, national government, and the European Commission). In doing so, we are able to illustrate how new actors - in this case the European Commission and the Commissioner for Competition - were able to terminate long-existing policies of state aid to shipbuilders under the auspices of improving competition and the free market at the start of the 1980s.

By looking at the policy termination of state aid to shipbuilders in Amsterdam, this article illustrates how a major policy paradigm shift within recent history, and the change from Keynesian to neoliberal policies, can be explained. The article is informed by a multilevel governance approach to policy change analysis and is based on different types of sources. It presents an in-depth case study of the closing of the Amsterdam shipyards and analyzes the role of policy change at different governance levels (i.e., city government, national Parliament, national government, and the European Commission). In doing so, we are able to illustrate how new actors—in this case the European Commission and the Commissioner for Competition—were able to terminate long-existing policies of state aid to shipbuilders under the auspices of improving competition and the free market at the start of the 1980s.

Response to DevosIn response to Devos we argue that by reducing managerial politics to just another form of businesslike politics one diminishes twentieth century political history to an amorphous period of businesslike politics without changes. What distinguishes managerial politics from other forms of politics is not the businesslike behaviour of politicians, but their conscious, open and proud presentation of themselves as managers and their appraisal of management books as (ideological) sources of inspiration for policy making. To understand the rise of management in politics historians should pay more attention to public administration and management science. This makes clear that in the 1970s management itself changed fundamentally, which accounts for the popularisation of management in the 1980s. Finally, like all political style periods, managerial politics came to an end, symbolised in the Netherlands by the elections of 2002. Since then management has been used only in negative terms by politicians. This article is part of the forum 'Manager Politics'.

Manager Politics: Why Historians should be Aware of ManagementThis article pleads for the incorporation of methods of (public) management and public administration sciences in the writing of political (cultural) history. These help historians to become more sensitive to the language and influence of managers and management in politics, enabling them to understand the era of manager politics that established itself from the 1980s onwards. The insights and gains of the new approach are illustrated by the case of Dutch politics during the cabinets of Prime Ministers Lubbers (1982-1994) and Kok (1994 2002) that show how politics became dominated by management. This led to important changes in the complement of staffing and behaviour of political parties, the cabinet and the public administration. How manager politics altered power relations is illustrated by the easy adoption of new routines and policies based on management (gurus). This article is part of the forum 'Manager Politics'.

By looking at the policy termination of state aid to ship builders in Amsterdam, this article illustrates how a major policy paradigm shift within recent history, and the change from Keynesian to neoliberal policies, can be explained. The article is informed by a multi-level governance approach to analyse policy change and is based on different types of sources. It presents an in-depth case study of the closing of the Amsterdam shipyards and analyses the role of policy change at different governance-levels (i.e. the city government, national Parliament, national government and the European Commission). In doing so, we are able to illustrate how new actors – in this case the European Commission and the Commissioner for Competition – were able to terminate long existing policies of state aid to shipbuilders, under the label of improving competition and the free market, at the start of the 1980s.

Today, the demand for transparency is omnipresent. In particular, transparency is considered a prerequisite for good governance, for political participation and democracy. On closer inspection, however, transparency proves to be ambivalent. For complete transparency has not yet been achieved anywhere. Moreover, measures to increase transparency can have the opposite effect and stir up mistrust. Historians are just beginning to discover this topic. The volume assembles contributions covering European history since the 19th century. The contributors focus on political and cultural history, but include also economic and media history as well as the history of ideas. They analyse publicly debated demands and efforts for transparency, conceived as the access to information or ist disclosure.