Facilitating Policy Innovation in the Middle East

Abstract

There is a need to ensure the effective transfer and diffusion of successful policy innovations that facilitate sustainable development in the Middle East region. However, to date there has been limited research on policy innovation in the Middle East region through theories such as policy diffusion, with most studies focused on North America and Western Europe. The following short essay represents an attempt to highlight this shortfall, stimulate discussion on what key factors could facilitate policy innovation in the Middle East, and promote further studies to address this imbalance. This is a theoretical study that primarily examines three theories that address the spread of policy innovation between governments: policy diffusion, policy laboratories, and borrowing strength. These theories are applied to different factors that influence policy innovation (geographic proximity, political ideology, culture, and networks and individuals) considered within the context of the Middle East to assess their relevance and applicability. Based on the application of these theories and key factors, the essay proposes three novel hypotheses for policy innovation, which are linked to the different factors. Each hypothesis identifies an area where it is expected that policy innovation would occur, if the theories hold true in a Middle Eastern Context. The essay contains an accompanying call to test these hypotheses within the region. It is expected that further studies in this area will be able to both test and build on the proposed hypotheses to determine the applicability of current (Western) theories to explain policy innovation in the Middle East and move towards a more comprehensive and targeted theory of policy in this region.