Policy mixes, policy outcomes, and policy entrepreneurship: A comparative study of the success of cycling policy within the Netherlands

Although the characteristics of policy mixes – coherence, comprehensiveness, consistency, and credibility – are posited to be important for policy success, whether they influence policy outcomes and, if so, how positive outcomes are realized is rarely studied empirically. In this study, we shed light on the relationship between policy mixes and policy outcomes through an abductive approach in the case of cycling policy in the Netherlands, a country renowned for its bikeability. Specifically, we trace the policy mixes, the modal share of cycling, and policy feedback during 2001-2020 in two Dutch municipalities with varied trajectories to success. We find that the characteristics of the policy mixes – especially credibility, consistency, and coherence – were indeed associated with policy success. Further, policy entrepreneurship – which has not received adequate attention in the literature on policy mixes – played a key role in developing these characteristics. We conclude by formulating hypotheses on how different types of policy entrepreneurship might influence the evolution of policy mixes.