The long-standing question of the kind of institutions required to ensure the suitable scope and operation of markets is of fundamental importance to society and wide open for ongoing exploration. The question arises in relation to a range of contemporary socio-economic challenges facing policymakers. How far to attempt to shape distributive outcomes, given the tendency for markets to create inequalities that are often profound and can become entrenched over generations? How to mitigate climate change and various forms of ecological degradation, the costs of which have very often been external to our processes of market exchange? How to achieve effective public service delivery in areas such as health, education and social care? Political debates about overall policy goals in the face of these challenges are frequently highly charged, being shaped by contrasting normative, often ideologically driven, perspectives. Within these debates also lie disagreements about how to establish the most effective means for attaining goals, where the question of the role of markets is usually of integral importance. Understandings of policy effectiveness are inextricably connected with, and hence shape, the contours of normative and ideologically driven policy controversies. Within these discussions of policy problems lie questions about which of a range of policy strategies and instruments are most suitable for shaping socio-economic and ecological outcomes (Howlett & Rayner, 2007). The complexity of many