Policy Learning Processes in International Committees

Abstract

In spite of their long history and extensive activities, the international committees of the Nordic Council of Ministers (NCM) have not hitherto been subject to scholarly examination. This article analyses for the first time policy learning among civil servants and experts in this international organization. Using the Advocacy Coalition Framework as the starting point, a number of exploratory hypotheses on policy learning in the NCM committees are tested. The aim is to investigate the processes of policy learning between countries in international committees, a subject which has hitherto only been dealt with in very few studies. In this analysis, a methodology for measuring policy learning is also proposed. Among other things, it is concluded that policy learning in these international committees increases when they avoid fragmentation into coalitions, are open to public opinion, when participants in committees are driven by a sense of purpose rather that material interest, when empirical data are made available to committees, when a neutral presidency is present in order to act as an authoritative persuader, and when neutral experts participate, although not experts from consultancy firms.