Contemporary public administration is conventionally portrayed as being based on a series of dichotomies: politics versus administration, coordination versus fragmentation, integration versus disintegration, trust versus distrust, etc. As an alternative, this volume, which is composed of a series of case studies from the Nordics and beyond, conceptualises and empirically demonstrates how government bodies at different levels of governance are driven by pragmatism characterised by the co-existence of multiple decision-making premises. To account for the composite aspect of government, this volume illustrates how institutional and organisational factors can structure elements in the policymaking process and how these elements are powerful tools available to purposeful design.