For someone who teaches public policy with a comparative focus on the Western world, it is striking how much theories developed in the 1980s and 1990s still dominate the reading list. Multiple streams, advocacy coalitions, punctuated equilibrium, veto players, the questions of whether politics matter, blame avoidance, policy learning, and path dependency are all concepts and theoretical discussions from this period that still set the agenda for the study of public policy. Of course, outstanding and important work on public policy has been done since, but it has been some time since anyone has been able to substantially change the agenda for how we study public policy in the Western world.

This book is an attempt to change the scholarly agenda by introducing the concept of policy accumulation into the study of public policy and to explain why it should have a central place. The notion of policy accumulation refers to the total portfolio of public policy. More aspects of societal life are targeted by an increasing number of policy instruments, and this growth in the density with which public policy penetrates Western society is what is meant by the term “policy accumulation.” From a theoretical perspective, this focus on the total amount of public policy is a radical break with the focus on change or continuity within a single policy area that otherwise characterizes the field of public policy research.

The empirical starting point for the book, which is documented in chapter 3, is that the accumulation of public policy is a uniform trend across the Western world. This observation is not far from those offered by studies on the growth of government or the growth of rules. The book does spend some time discussing possible explanations for policy accumulation in chapter 3, but the main purpose of the book (as laid out in chapters 4–6) is to discuss the democratic consequences of this development, which are largely seen as negative. Chapter 4 discusses the implications for public debate about public policy by focusing on the underlying idea of “diverging discourses.” Policy accumulation causes the public debate to diverge from the expert arena, and policy substance is only selectively included in public debate, which instead comes to focus on the political process. Simply put, the complexity following from policy accumulation inhibits the possibility of having a public debate focused on substance. Chapter 5 moves on to discuss the implications of policy accumulation for the implementation of public policy. The argument of this chapter is that the density with which public policy penetrates society hampers its effective implementation. A given policy is so densely interwoven with other polices that changing one policy almost always has unexpected implications for other policies. A central argument here is that those who actually have to implement public policy are overloaded with new policy measures. These new measures are often aimed at fine-tuning existing measures to a complex society, but end up overburdening the implementers, who are therefore not capable of actually implementing public policy. Finally, chapter 6 discusses the implications of policy accumulation for evidence-based policy making. Policy accumulation is also challenging for evaluating public policy because policies interact with each other in a complex web and effects are often highly conditional. Increasingly sophisticated methods for evaluating public policy have emerged, so the actual challenge lies more in the requirements necessary for understanding and interpreting the evidence that is produced on the effects of public policy. In other words, policy accumulation implies that you also need a social science PhD to understand the evidence on the effects of public policy. This makes the evidence less relevant for the public debate.

Having read the first six chapters, the straightforward conclusion might be that we should roll back policy accumulation by a call for policy dismantling. This conclusion is not so far away from neoliberal calls for deregulation or less government. However, the authors explicitly reject this conclusion, although noting that it might be relevant in some policy areas. In general, however, policy accumulation is the result of the quest for human progress and better societies, which we should not give up, they argue. Instead, the authors suggest measures like better vertical coordination, investment in public employees, civic education, and statistical literacy.

In general, it is a pleasure to read the book. It nicely combines theoretical discussions with examples taken from different policy areas. This makes it easy to understand the theoretical arguments and follow the overall argumentation of the book. A major strength of the book is also that it connects the study of public policy with studies of democratic representation and the rise of populism. The study of public policy is often seen as not particularly relevant for discussions of democratic representation, which is dominated by work on political behavior and political actors. Linking the study of public policy with these broad debates about democratic development is thus clear testimony to the potential of the concept of policy accumulation.

Will the concept of policy accumulation then become a standard item on the agenda of public policy classes and a central part of the theoretical vocabulary of public policy studies? Such a paradigm change is what is announced in the introduction (p. 1). This is not an unlikely development. As a reader, one is clearly convinced that policy accumulation deserves attention. However, the uncertainty whether the book will lead to a paradigm change stems from what the book does less of—empirically studying policy accumulation. Chapter 3 provides evidence of a general trend toward policy accumulation and the many examples are enlightening, but for the scholar eagerly wanting to get started on the study of policy accumulation and its implications, the path forward is less clear. There are some indications in chapter 3 that policy accumulation varies cross-nationally and exploring this further seems an important task, but exactly how to do so is not spelled out systematically in the book.

In terms of the democratic implications, empirical studies of public debates around public policy would also have been an interesting addition to the book. Is it true that public and expert debates diverge, as argued in chapter 4? And is this something that varies across policy fields? Another question that would seem highly important concerns what the public actually knows about public policy and its effects and how the public reacts to evidence on the effects of public policy. Is it true that the more sophisticated the evidence becomes, the less impact it has on the public debate?

In sum, Policy Accumulation and the Democratic Responsiveness Trap is definitely worth reading by any scholar interested in public policy. It opens one’s eyes to a new perspective on public policy and its impact on democracy. In terms of achieving the ultimate aim of the book—introducing a new concept to the standard vocabulary of public policy study—the jury is still out. The good news, however, is that the authors have just started exploring policy accumulation and its implications.