De opmerkelijke terugkeer van de kostenbaten-analyse in het centrum van de bestuurspraktijk: hoe het succes van O(E)EI lacunes in de moderne bestuurskundige theorie blootlegt

Decision-making on transport infrastucture projects in the Netherlands has been facing a remarkable wind of change in recent years. After a period of about a decade in the 1990s in which both academics and practitiones in policy analysis, public policy and planning have claimed that the traditional policy analysis methods were obsolete (be they CBA or MCA) because of their assumed one sidedness and lack of adaptability to the requirements of multi-actor settings, they experience a sudden resurgence since the year 2000 in the form of OEEI (Overview of Economic Effects of Infrastructure), a refined application of the wellknown CBA method. Astonishingly and despite all political and administrative theory on the types of information policy actors can process, the need for transparancy and active actor involvement in the evaluation and decision process, all at odds with traditional policy analysis, OEEI has become highly successful. This paper delves into the issue of why this new version of Cost Benefit Analysis has become so politically successful despite predictions made to the contrary. In addition, it will focus on the question if this resurgence may lead to 'econocracy' (concpetual hegemony by economists and thier ideologies and methods over other approaches) or not, and if so, how can this be prevented.