Policy transfer in a corporatist context: Agents, adjustments and continued innovation

Abstract

This article examines a case of collaborative policy transfer from Australia to Sweden involving a three-year project of structured analysis, piloting and system modification. The influential role of agency and the manner in which formal mechanisms established to manage engagement impact upon policy analysis and transfer are explored. The analysis finds that agency mobilised with the supplementation of institutional resources becomes a highly motivating and powerful force underpinning collaborative policy transfer processes. The nuances and challenges of policy transfer from a predominantly neoliberal administrative domain into a characteristically corporatist environment are analysed demonstrating that domestic policy processes are critical for defining avenues for actor participation and the manner through which policy adjustments are progressed. A key finding of the work is that policy transfer is more than the one-way transmission of ideas, systems and practices from one jurisdiction to another but can also act as an iterative process, more evidently linked into each jurisdictions’ domestic policy cycles of problem analysis, action and review. Under collaborative policy transfer the resources and interest from two distinct locations are mobilised around a policy concern and this effectively enhances the level of critical thinking and reflective practice that contributes to problem solving and solution development. The findings of this study confirm that cross-country collaboration and transfer is an increasingly important pathway in the ongoing development of policy reform and innovation.