Informed by an ontology, an epistemology and concepts forged with the support of a sociology that is essentially French, this article sets out to analyse the regulation of industries in Europe by adopting a perspective that combines institutionalist theories developed in industrial economics and public policy analysis. It then shows how transforming this approach into interdisciplinary empirical research questions provides a means of systematically studying the European government of industries. Finally, by encompassing a wide cross-section of European industrial organizations and policies, this research strategy generates hypotheses on the dynamics of this government and, in particular, of the role competition policy plays within it.