Policy Diffusion Research Articles

From Policy Adoption to Practice: Comparative Analysis of Innovation Institutionalization Paths

Policy innovation is critical to improve governance capacity; however, contemporary research mainly focuses on diffusion and adoption, disregarding the next stage, namely institutionalization. Taking the diffusion and institutionalization of China’s “One Visit at Most” reform as a case study and using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, this paper examines the conditions and paths that lead local governments to institutionalize this reform. The results show that four paths lead from innovation to institutionalization: policy system and idea embeddedness, spontaneous competition, learning by seizing momentum, and entrepreneurial breakthrough. These findings extend the research on policy adoption, diffusion, and institutionalization.

Diffusion of BIM policies in China: an event history analysis

PurposeDespite the critical role of the policy environment in facilitating the advancement of building information modeling (BIM) as a systemic innovation to reshape traditional facility design, construction and operation processes, scant scholarly attention has been paid to systematically investigating how and why complex BIM policies are concretely and gradually implemented in different regional contexts from a dynamic policy diffusion perspective. This study aims to empirically investigate how different types of BIM policy instruments are dynamically implemented in heterogeneous regions over time and how the diffusion of BIM policies across different regions is comprehensively impacted by both internal efficiency needs and external legitimacy pressures.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed a positivist research paradigm in which BIM policy data from 182 prefecture-level and above cities in China during 2011–2022 were analyzed with quantitative approaches for theory verification. Based on the content analysis of the evolutionary characteristics of the adopted BIM policy instruments in heterogeneous regions over time, the event history analysis (EHA) method was then used to further examine the mechanisms underlying the diffusion of BIM policies across different regions.FindingsThe content analysis results show that while environmental instruments (such as technological integration and goal planning) are the primary policy instruments currently adopted in China, recent years have also witnessed increasing adoptions of supply-side instruments (such as fiscal support and information support) and demand-side instruments (such as demonstration projects and tax incentives). After controlling for the impacts of regional fiscal and technical resources, the EHA results illustrate that BIM policy adoption positively relates to regional construction industry scale but negatively relates to regional industry productivity and that compared with public pressures from industry participants, vertical pressures from the central government and horizontal pressures from neighboring regions are more substantial drivers for policy adoption.Originality/valueAs an exploratory effort of using a dynamic policy diffusion perspective to systematically investigate how BIM policies are adopted in heterogeneous regional contexts to facilitate BIM advancement, this study not only characterizes the complexity and dynamics of BIM policies but also provides deepened understandings of the mechanisms underlying policy adoption in the conservative construction industry. The findings hold implications for how multifarious policy instruments can be more effectively and dynamically adopted to facilitate the advancement of BIM and related technologies as innovative solutions in the construction domain.

Policy Diffusion, Environmental Federalism, and Economic Efficiency – How Institutions Influence the Implementation of EU Legislation in Two Nordic Countries

Abstract We explore the changes in central government administration due to European Union (EU) membership and its consequences for policy outcomes and economic efficiency in Finland and Sweden. Both countries became members of the EU in 1995. Upon joining the union, member states are expected to adopt common legislation and are encouraged to develop similar rule-making procedures. The actual implementation of EU directives varies considerably between member states, however. This is also the case for Finland and Sweden. Despite the two Nordic countries for historical reasons having had similar government systems, upon becoming members of the EU, they started to diverge. Using a model of delegation and comparing the more centralized Finnish system with the decentralized institutional setup in Sweden, we show that the Swedish approach leads to a stricter than optimal environmental policy, which in turn makes EU policy non-optimal from a global point of view, ceteris paribus. We also provide empirical support for our findings in the form of some example cases. We focus on environmental policy since this is an area that has been high on the EU agenda.

What shapes the formation of interstate benchmarking networks?

AbstractMost studies on public sector benchmarking focus on performance indicators, processes, and outcomes of managed benchmarking. This article, instead, explores the formation of spontaneous interstate benchmarking networks among U.S. state agency leaders. Informed by social comparison theory, we first recategorize benchmarking into best practice benchmarking and competitive benchmarking. Then, we quantify two benchmarking networks with a survey dataset and employ the Exponential Random Graph Model to analyze both endogenous and exogenous factors in the formation of both types of benchmarking networks. We find that the best practice benchmarking network has a popularity effect, while the competitive benchmarking network has mutuality and transitivity effects. Both types of benchmarking networks are more likely to form among states with historical policy diffusion ties and similar economic and geographic characteristics. This study contributes to the literature on public sector benchmarking and network research by exploring the factors that influence the formation of benchmarking networks.

Policy Diffusion and Regionalization of Immigration: Canada’s International Student Migration Policy Landscape

Policy Diffusion and Regionalization of Immigration: Canada’s International Student Migration Policy Landscape

Regulating smoking in Japan: from manners to rules

Abstract Opinions vary in Japan on whether smoking is deviant today, but the behavior, once widely accepted, faces increasing regulation. Recent reforms, moving beyond reliance on nonsmokers' tolerance and smokers' etiquette, impose stricter and more detailed rules on smoking, along with penalties for noncompliance. As the Japanese government's promotional materials note, the reforms move “from manners to rules” (manā kara rūru e). The evolution of Japan's smoking regulations exemplifies a shift toward more legalistic modes of social control. Historically, Japanese governance relied on non-binding “soft law,” administrative guidance, and societal cooperation. Legalistic governance, in contrast, hinges on formal rules and proceduralized enforcement mechanisms. This article, drawing on twenty-eight interviews and qualitative analysis of policy deliberations, advocacy organization documents, court rulings, and Japanese news coverage, traces how societal actors contributed to this legalistic turn. Tobacco control advocates filed lawsuits, pursued voluntary changes through local activities, and provided information subsidies to policymakers while lobbying for local and national reforms. They thereby helped de-normalize smoking and render it regulatable. By uncovering bottom-up drivers of legalistic governance and the strategies through which societal actors influence regulatory style, this paper contributes to scholarship on governance, policy diffusion, and law and social change.

Development assistance, donor–recipient dynamic, and domestic policy: a case study of two health interventions supported by World Bank–UK and Global Fund in China

BackgroundThis study views sustainability after the exit of development assistance for health (DAH) as a shared responsibility between donors and recipients and sees transitioning DAH-supported interventions into domestic health policy as a pathway to this sustainability. It aims to uncover and understand the reemergent aspects of the donor–recipient dynamic in DAH and how they contribute to formulating domestic health policy and post-DAH sustainability.MethodsWe conducted a case study on two DAH-supported interventions: medical financial assistance in the Basic Health Services Project supported by the World Bank and UK (1998–2007) and civil society engagement in the HIV/AIDS Rolling Continuation Channel supported by the Global Fund (2010–2013) in China. From December 2021 to December 2022, we analyzed 129 documents and interviewed 46 key informants. Our data collection and coding were guided by a conceptual framework based on Walt and Gilson’s health policy analysis model and the World Health Organization’s health system building blocks. We used process tracing for analysis.ResultsAccording to the collected data, our case study identified three reemergent, interrelated aspects of donor–recipient dynamics: different preferences and compromise, partnership dialogues, and responsiveness to the changing context. In the case of medical financial assistance, the dynamic was characterized by long-term commitment to addressing local needs, on-site mutual learning and understanding, and local expertise cultivation and knowledge generation, enabling proactive responses to the changing context. In contrast, the dynamic in the case of HIV/AIDS civil society engagement marginalized genuine civil society engagement, lacked sufficient dialogue, and exhibited a passive response to the context. These differences led to varying outcomes in transnational policy diffusion and sustainability of DAH-supported interventions between the cases.ConclusionsGiven the similarities in potential alternative factors observed in the two cases, we emphasize the significance of the donor–recipient dynamic in transnational policy diffusion through DAH. The study implies that achieving post-DAH sustainability requires a balance between donor priorities and recipient ownership to address local needs, partnership dialogues for mutual understanding and learning, and collaborative international–domestic expert partnerships to identify and respond to contextual enablers and barriers.

The “boy problem” in public policy

AbstractThe article investigates how gender differences in school performance are conceptualized in recent Swedish and Norwegian public commission reports against the backdrop of an increasing public focus on “problem boys” and boys' underachievement in school as a policy challenge. We found substantive country differences, despite regime similarities and the considerable level of gender equality norms and policy diffusion within the Nordic region. Whereas Swedish reports address gender differences in school performance and behavior equipped with radical feminist perspectives and theories of patriarchal oppression, Norwegian reports largely avoid explicit references to feminist theory and include analyses of the unfair burdens of boys in school and society. It is argued that the diverging approaches are connected to features of the commissions and of the wider knowledge regimes of the two gender equality forerunners, but also to historical differences in the ideological underpinnings of Swedish and Norwegian gender equality policy making.Related ArticlesIreni‐Saban, Liza. 2013. “Give Me Children or Else I Die: The Politics and Policy of Cross‐Border Reproductive Care.” Politics & Policy 41(1): 5–38. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12004.Svallfors, Stefan, Erica Falkenström, Corrie Hammar, and Anna T. Höglund. 2022. “Networked Reports: Commissioning and Production of Expert Reports on Swedish Health Care Governance.” Politics & Policy 50(3): 580–97. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12462.Tusalem, Rollin F. 2022. “Does Gendered Representation in National Legislatures Promote Substantive Representation and Human Development? Evidence from the Developing World.” Politics & Policy 50(6): 1096–137. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12503.

Properties of supranational governance structures and policy diffusion: The case of mifepristone approvals

Many studies show that supranational governance structures (SGS)—understood as international organizations or international treaties—contribute to the global diffusion of public policies. However, we still have a limited understanding of which properties of SGS hasten the number of policy adoptions. To advance this literature, we argue that SGS making legally binding and univocal claims are more likely to act as diffusion accelerators. We demonstrate the suitability of this argument through a case study of the global diffusion of mifepristone approvals, a single‐purpose medicine to terminate pregnancies that has revolutionized abortion services. The analysis supports our expectation. Links to the EU and the Maputo Protocol—the only two considered SGS that make binding claims with clear implications for this policy field—hasten mifepristone approvals. By contrast, ratification of four other treaties—that do not make binding and univocal claims—and exposure to World Health Organization guidelines on medical abortion does not hasten these approvals.

Characteristics and Mechanisms of China’s Pilot Models in Policy Diffusion: A Case Study of the Return Migrant Workers Entrepreneurship Policy

Characteristics and Mechanisms of China’s Pilot Models in Policy Diffusion: A Case Study of the Return Migrant Workers Entrepreneurship Policy

Learning from and Emulating Their Peers: Policy Diffusion in the Courts

AbstractMany studies of policy diffusion focus on what factors affect a policy’s adoption. Few studies specifically test the mechanism and two of the most common explanations – learning and emulation – have not been tested outside of legislatures. While judicial scholars have applied policy diffusion to several types of laws, we know little about the motivation behind why policies spread from court to court. One unexplored area is the relationship between courts. This short article analyzes the two mechanisms most likely to affect peer institutions: learning and emulation. Using network analysis methods on an original dataset of state supreme court citations from 1960 to 2010, I provide evidence that courts are learning from and not emulating each other, but the mechanism is policy-specific.

Seeding policy: Viral cash and the diverse trajectories of basic income in the United States

AbstractDuring the COVID‐19 pandemic, cities in the United States of America developed more that 100 basic income pilots. This article examines the heretofore hidden impact of the pandemic on the future extension of basic income programmes at the sub‐national level. While the super‐majoritarian requirements of United States federal policy making keep the possibility of national‐level basic income remote, several features of basic income, including unconditional cash transfers and broad programme eligibility, have emerged as viable tools in state and local policy. Drawing on an inventory of basic income pilots and interviews with policy entrepreneurs, this article defines and then examines the phenomenon of “viral cash” and assesses the probability that the wave of basic income pilots will continue to grow after the pandemic. Conventional approaches to evaluating the diffusion of policies across jurisdictions focus squarely on policy. Appraising viral cash’s future requires a shift to following the advocacy networks who move, adapt and combine basic income with other programmes.

Dinâmica Política da Formulação da Política de Acesso à Informação no Brasil

Abstract Freedom of information (FOI) policymaking in Brazil is portrayed as a “successful story.” Data on adherence of the Brazilian legislation to international standards indicates its FOI institutions are in the top-ten group in the substantive dimension of FOI but are the last when it comes to the procedural dimension. What mechanism has driven this process to produce such ambivalence? This study assumes that FOI policymaking in Brazil represented an ambiguous legitimacy-based emulation process, oriented toward homogenization to the international field, but without breaking the governmental control over information. It draws on theoretical work on policy diffusion focusing on emulation and uses theories on conflicts and negotiation for power as drivers of policymaking. The results suggest this process was forged by political dynamics of disputes and compromises, and its outcomes derived from political trade-offs between key actors on controversial issues. Thus, the results materialized the preferences of non-governmental actors for a larger scope and no “eternal secrecy” and assured government offices’ prerogatives on implementation and their final decision on appeals. This case may represent a broader phenomenon, considering that comparative data indicates that this ambivalence in adherence between substantive and procedural dimensions is more significant in Latin America than in other regions.

Research on Policy Diffusion Path and Reproduction of River Chief System

Research on Policy Diffusion Path and Reproduction of River Chief System

Determinants of Policy Diffusion in Brazil and the U.S

Determinants of Policy Diffusion in Brazil and the U.S

Athletic competition between the states: The rapid spread of Name, Image, Likeness laws and why it matters for understanding policy diffusion

AbstractIn the study of the policy diffusion process, scholars have found that states adopt policies to remain competitive with one another over economic resources. But the rapid spread of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) policies, which treat college athletes as professionals, is not readily explained by economic competition nor other diffusion mechanisms. The NIL phenomenon points to a new dimension of competition between the states, which is more closely tied to states protecting or enhancing their reputations than it is to directly accruing economic resources. To test if NIL spread as the result of athletic reputation competition, we model the adoption of NIL legislation as a function of internal characteristics (i.e. number, value, and ranking of college football programs) and interstate dynamics (i.e. actions of football, conference, and Power 5 competitors). We test the effect of these measures alongside traditional diffusion indicators, finding that both internal and interstate indicators of athletic competition drive states to adopt and implement NIL. NIL is important to study as it has changed the landscape of amateur sports, as well as our scholarly understanding of policy diffusion in the American federal system, specifically broadening our conceptualization of the competition mechanism and developing customized measures of it.

The Influence of Non-State Actors in Climate Policymaking

Purpose: The main objective of this study is to explore the influence of non-state actors in climate policymaking.
 Methodology: The study adopted a desktop research methodology. Desk research refers to secondary data or that which can be collected without fieldwork. Desk research is basically involved in collecting data from existing resources hence it is often considered a low cost technique as compared to field research, as the main cost is involved in executive’s time, telephone charges and directories. Thus, the study relied on already published studies, reports and statistics. This secondary data was easily accessed through the online journals and library.
 Findings: The findings revealed that there exists a contextual and methodological gap relating to the influence of non-state actors in climate policymaking. Preliminary empirical review revealed that non-state actors, including civil society organizations, corporations, cities, and transnational networks, exert considerable influence through various mechanisms such as advocacy, mobilization, technical expertise, and collaboration with governments. Their involvement is driven by diverse motivations, including environmental stewardship, economic interests, and the pursuit of social and ethical values. One key takeaway from this study is that non-state actors are not merely peripheral actors in the climate policy landscape; rather, they are central to the process of crafting effective climate policies. Their contributions span from raising public awareness and holding governments accountable to providing innovative solutions and pushing for ambitious climate targets. However, the extent of their influence can vary significantly depending on the specific context, the level of government involved, and the particular issue at hand.
 Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The Network Governance theory, Interest Group theory and the Policy Diffusion theory maybe used to anchor future studies on climate policymaking. Recommendations made from the study include the following: enhancing transparency and accountability, strengthening collaboration, promoting inclusivity, supporting capacity building and global knowledge sharing.

도시재생 기반 관광 공간의 확산요인 분석: 정책확산이론을 중심으로

In this study, the diffusion process of the innovative policy of urban regeneration was examined from the perspective of tourism, and the analysis was conducted on the premise that spatial interaction between local governments can occur based on policy diffusion theory. As a result of the exploratory analysis, it was confirmed that spatial autocorrelation occurs between neighboring local governments, while spatial heterogeneity exists between local governments with different geographical locations. According to the results of spatial regression analysis, competition, learning, and forcing mechanisms appeared significantly in the ordinance adoption process in the early stage of policy introduction, and only competition and learning mechanisms showed significant influence in the later ordinance revision process. In other words, the more actively local governments within the same metropolitan government adopt or revise ordinances, and the more successful the adoption and revision of ordinances by neighboring local governments is, the more active the local governments are in introducing and revising ordinances. It can be interpreted. In addition, it can be understood that local governments that have difficulty receiving financial support from higher-level governments are more active in initially adopting ordinances and less so in the process of revising ordinances. Accordingly, we have presented policy implications aimed at fostering the sustainability of urban regeneration areas, which are increasingly recognized as new tourism spaces, with a focus on factors influencing policy diffusion.

Legislative Civility, Gridlock, Polarization, and Productivity

AbstractThis article examines the relationship between legislative civility and legislative productivity in US state legislatures. The research employs data from the National Survey of State Legislative Lobbyists and from the State Policy Innovation and Diffusion (SPID) database. The former dataset is used to generate an overall civility index for each state as developed by Kettler et al. The SPID database allows one to measure the legislative productivity of a state legislature. Employing these data, negative binomial and Poisson regression models reveal that state legislatures rated as more civil by their own lobbyists produced significantly more pieces of noteworthy legislation than those legislative bodies rated as less civil. These results suggest that the quality of internal legislative dynamics matters for legislative productivity.

Beyond Transplant: A Network Innovation Model of Transnational Regulatory Change

Abstract Seeking inspiration from different legal systems in order to solve common policy problems is a core enterprise of comparative law. However, dominant understandings in comparative law and regulatory theory about how norms, rules, and formal institutions move across borders are increasingly inadequate in the face of modern transnational policy challenges. Solving transnational problems requires regulatory innovation, complex coordination, and even competition among private and public actors in multiple jurisdictions, as well as much faster policy responses than most countries can achieve either domestically or multilaterally. Accelerating solutions to emerging transnational problems therefore demands a new focus within comparative law on how transnational legal innovation works and how to leverage its benefits faster on both a global and local scale. This Article proposes a conceptual framework to ground this effort—a “network innovation” model of transnational law formation. Building on earlier literatures on legal transplant, policy diffusion, institutional change, and transnational legal ordering, as well as studies of firm-level innovation, this approach recognizes that new norms, rules, and other institutions are sourced from, coordinated by, and transmitted through transnational networks of public and private actors. Moving beyond prior literatures, however, it views transnational law formation as an aggregating process of innovation where the resulting outputs are the complex product of multiple experimental sites and sources. This approach offers a more accurate descriptive account of transnational regulatory change and points to network innovation processes as central to solving common or collective transnational problems. This Article illustrates the proposed framework with case studies of efforts to build sustainable financial systems. It concludes by suggesting strategies to accelerate network innovation and considering how this theoretical paradigm might inform new directions in comparative law.