Environmental Policy Transfer in Germany and Greece

Abstract

This chapter provides an empirical investigation of an attempt to transfer an environmental employment programme, Ecotrans, from Denmark to Greece and to Germany. Evans and Davies developed the policy transfer network approach in order to link the policy network approach, especially Marsh and Rhodes's idea of a policy community, to the concept of epistemic communities, as a method for studying the policy transfer phenomenon. The prefecture of Piraeus in Greece was the first target area for the Ecotrans project. The transfer of the Ecotrans Project shows that policy transfer can lead either to policy convergence, policy divergence or inertia. The policy transfer process in Piraeus can best be described as inert, although there is a chance for policy convergence to occur at a later stage. This finding is in line with the third wave literature on globalization, which claims that globalization is a reversible phenomenon that can lead to both convergence and divergence.