Governing dutch telecommunications reform: State-business interactions in the transformation of national policy regimes to (European) embedded policy regimes

In the last decade the Dutch telecommunications regime has twice been radically transformed. The nature of these reforms and their implications for the autonomy of the nation state vis-à-vis the Commission as well as business are often the subject of dubious generalizations and high-level macro-analysis. By distinguishing between four micro-policy regimes (etatist, liberal, intergovernmental and supranational) and two cases of reform (terminal type-approval and interconnection), this article sheds light on the complexities of the process of liberalization and the Europeanization of public policy. While type-approval is a clear case of deregulation (fewer rules, freer markets), interconnection is an equally clear case of reregulation (more rules, freer markets). At the same time, while the case of type-approval reflects a diminution in the role of both the Dutch state and the European Commission, the case of interconnection reflects a situation in which both strengthen their capacities and therefore also their autonomy. The complexity of this picture does not mean that one should adopt a middle-of-the-road attitude to the issue of state power and autonomy. The future of the Dutch economy and of national competitiveness in the ‘information age’ still depends on the policies and capacities of the Dutch state.