Which Countries Learn from Which?

Abstract

Which countries learn from which other countries in the course of cooperation in the Nordic and European open method of coordination (OMC) committees? That is the key question this article addresses.The goal is to contribute to the body of research on Europeanization by exploring its ‘horizontal’ thrust. The object of the study is the direction of learning as perceived by participants in European OMC committees and Nordic committees with similar functions. The approach implies cross-testing of two key hypotheses: (1) the direction of learning in international committees is dependent on which countries can show ‘best practice’, and (2) learning in international committees is dependent on the degree to which countries share a similar economic-political background (the ‘most similar’ hypothesis). The cross test affirms the ‘best practice’ hypothesis, whereas the ‘most similar’ hypothesis is shown to be significant only to the extent that it concurs with the ‘best practice’ hypothesis.