Introduction

Digital issues now concern all policy domains and are transforming the way we govern around the world. Public policy analysis, however, has paid far too little attention to the emergence of such a phenomenon, and to the socio-historical trajectories of its development. After discussing the existing literature, between Internet regulation and e-government, this introduction presents the original point of view adopted by the book: studying Internet policies as a broad set of public interventions, the development of which makes it possible to understand the recent transformation of the State and government in Europe. It also details methodological choices and theoretical frameworks underpinning such an analysis, based on extensive fieldwork and the study of bureaucratic politics and institutional change.