“…Besides the notion of policy entrepreneurs, which is commonly referred to in public policy research (Arnold, 2022;Harvey-Scholes et al, 2022;Petridou et al, 2021;Tang & He, 2023;Taylor et al, 2023), Liefferink and Wurzel (2017) have introduced the concepts of leaders and pioneers. In this EPA issue, Watanabe (2023) provides an in-depth analysis of wind energy policy-making within the context of the German energy transition ("Energiewende"). More specifically, the article analyzes the role of one particular state (Schleswig-Holstein) in the federal policy process, which has turned from a coalition veto player into a pioneer and contributes to an empirical account of the conceptual distinction between different types of change agents within this case example.…”