7 The Political Economy of Policy Ideas: Concluding Remarks and Open Questions 7.1 Ideas, the EU and Knowledge Regimes The impact of ideas on social stability and change can be slight, but also extremely pervasive: we are only at the beginning of a better compre- hension of the elements that account for the difference (Rueschemeyer 2006). What we do know is that, while ideas are subject to interpretation, manipulation and change, they are part of the political game (Rodrick 2014) and we can no longer keep them out of our analytical framework when we discuss the frontiers and relationships between society, politics and economy. We also know that the role of ideas can only be understood if they are placed in interaction with institutional and socio-economic contexts, with political and social forces, and with all the historical and social processes with which they are entwined. Organisational and institutional structures, interests and concerns in society foster them, support their propagation, struggle against them or preserve them. Ideas are supported by networks of people and institutions and the associated factors of communication and inﬂuence, which are of decisive importance for their creation, maintenance and impact on society. © The Author(s) 2020 G. Scalise, The Political Economy of Policy Ideas, Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55750-8_7 213