International Policy Transfer Research Articles

‘What we lacked was the courage to take decisions that differed from the rest of the world’: expert perspectives on the role of evidence in COVID-19 policymaking in Iraq

IntroductionIraq reported its first COVID-19 case on 24 February 2020 and formed a national committee and advisory committees to support its response. While global experts have suggested that the COVID-19...

Resolving impasses in policy translation: Shall we adjust the idea or the process?

This study explains how contrasting perspectives on resolving impasses in policymaking exist among all relevant actors in a case of transferring Dutch flood management policy to Jakarta, Indonesia. It does so by introducing Q methodology as a novel method in policy transfer and policy mobility studies. International policy transfer requires a continuous, iterative process of policy translation where stagnation may occur following disruptions on the policy, polity or political dimension. This paper assumes that actors go through a process in which they assign meaning to transfer objects. Using Q methodology, two contrasting perspectives are identified in the case of transferring the ‘Dutch Delta Approach’ to Jakarta, Indonesia. One perspective emphasises the need for direct implementation, while the other advocates further modification of ideas. These contrasting perspectives cut through existing sender-receiver categorizations and prevent strategic alignment needed for a breakthrough. Furthermore, they suggest a lack of political leadership from Indonesia and potential conflict of interests of the Dutch government as policy sender as other causes for prolonged stagnation. Finally, I conclude that the outsourcing of strategy making and planning to consultants delimits the space for translation.

International Policy Transfer in Post-Communist States

This study aims to explore international policy transfer (IPT) through examining educational reforms in Kazakhstan. Literature on policy transfer lacks cases between Western countries and post-communist states with a Soviet legacy. This study used the IPT framework as a heuristic device to analyze the Bologna Process (BP), an intergovernmental higher education process. Empirical data included semi-structured interviews with BP stakeholders and thematic analyses of official documents to examine the stages of accession transfer. The findings demonstrated that a Soviet legacy constrains the policy transfer process during accession stages, limiting the policy transfer process from the West and leading to incomplete transfers.

Ação dialógica internacional: o potencial decolonial da cooperação estruturante em saúde promovida pelo Brasil.

Abstract The benefits of an empirical assessment of South-South cooperation (SSC) are currently being debated in the critical literature on this subject. This assessment could distinguish SSC practices from other cooperation practices and increase its transparency, social control, and credibility. In this sense, this paper theoretically assesses the dialogical/decolonial potential of structuring cooperation in health (SCH), a model of SSC created by Brazil; and analyses the applicability of different heuristics for international agreements and interinstitutional projects to empirically assess this potential. In theory, the SCH narrative is compatible with the decolonial literature mentioned in this paper. However, case studies from the fields of International Relations (IR) and Global Health diverge about this compatibility based on empirical observation. Nonetheless, heuristics from the field of International Law and Policy Transfer studies can help to recognize the decolonial potential inscribed in international agreements. In order to advance in the assessment of the dialogic character of SCH through projects, this paper argues that, institutionally, it is necessary to define the categories inscribed in them and make their monitoring and evaluation reports public. It concludes that the IR field needs to absorb the knowledge from the health sector and its technicians – something that does not occur in Latin America given the low interest in this sector.

International development cooperation as one of the triggers for the process of public policy transfer

On the one hand, transfer is a process by which governments intentionally use ideas about how policies in other countries work to design or redesign their own public policies (Dussauge, 2012). On the other hand, cooperation is a process that recognizes the existence of an interdependence between states and the international arena. This article aims to discuss and clarify the relation between international cooperation and policy transfer. Drawing on the analysis of development cooperation in Brazil and Chile, we discuss how technical cooperation agreements between these countries and third parties, encourage the transfer of public policies, in particular of those considered as models in the area of social policy, namely Bolsa Família and Chile Solidario. This article demonstrates that international development cooperation facilitates the existence of processes that allow for the transfer of specific components of social policies to other context. The analysis is based on a literature review and on information gathered through interviews conducted with relevant actors.

Korean tigers in Honduras: Urban economic zones as spatial ideology in international policy transfer networks

In 2012, the Honduran government and the state-run Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) reached an agreement though which KOICA would provide $4 million to conduct a feasibility study and master plan for three major Special Economic Development and Employment Zones (ZEDEs) in Honduras's Valle department in the southern part of the country. While post-coup right-wing regimes in Honduras seek legitimacy through association with the South Korean “Asian Tiger” and its conformity to global “rules and norms”, South Korean zone boosters engage in planning projects overseas as a form of speculative aid potentially opening up new frontiers of investment and development. Drawing on interviews with key actors and ethnographic fieldwork in both Honduras and South Korea, this paper explores representations of urban economic zones through the pinhole of international policy transfer between these two different political regimes. Rather than theorizing urban economic zones as a coherent mobile policy object proliferating in a world of neoliberal globalization, we propose a conceptualization of contemporary urban economic zones as a traveling spatial ideology. The political project of representation--comprised of spectacle and fantasy on one hand, and the erasures and exclusions of abstraction on the other--is a crucial precursor to the material transformations of land dispossession and the re-ordering of space.

Gauging differences in public transport symbolism across national cultures: implications for policy development and transfer

The use of different forms of public transport connotes different symbolic meanings across national cultures. This has relevance when encouraging the uptake of public transport in Asia's megacities such as Beijing or Chennai, where rapid deterioration in air quality has been partly attributed to a rapid increase in private motorised transport ownership and usage. Yet the social connotations of using public transport might not always be positive. Whilst metro systems may be seen as progressive and uniting, bus-based transit is still often seen as a ‘poor cousin’. This may present a significant impediment when encouraging a shift from private to public transport in cities where the national culture mandates visible differentiation between those of differing social status. This study uses deductive thematic analysis based upon symbolic permutations, to explore these concepts across two meta cultural clusters, each consisting of two sub clusters segmented by means of the Hofstede national culture indices: low power differential/individualistic (Anglo, Nordic), and high power differential/collectivist (Confucian, and South Asian). Using horizontal purposive sampling, sufficient differences are observed, as to the symbolism of the public transport modes across the groups, to justify an expansion of theory to the population of interest. The findings of the work should assist the promotion of sustainable transport in rapidly industrialising cities in the Global South, and international policy transfer across different geographies.

Subsidizing renewables as part of taking leadership in international climate policy: The German case

Leadership in Climate Policy is usually associated with leading by example in mitigation efforts whereas little attention has been paid to leadership in climate-friendly technological progress. We point out that pioneering activities that create reliable demand such as Germany's feed-in tariff for solar energy constitute such technological leadership. Based on global learning curves, we argue that the enormous reduction of prices for photovoltaic modules is due to demand side interventions like Germany's EEG and related international technology diffusion and policy transfer, especially to China. For the German case, we calculate that the costs of incentivizing this technological progress through the EEG add up to a range between 112.34 and 122.18 Bn Euro (based on a thought experiment of a hypothetical new entrant in 2014).

A Province under Pressure: Climate Change Policy in Alberta

AbstractAlberta is responsible for over a third of Canada's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Reducing the country's emissions requires policies and initiatives that reduce emissions in the province. Yet the study of provincial climate change policy in Canada has largely focused on lower-emitting provinces like British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario. This article argues that Alberta is best understood as a “reluctant actor” on climate change, whose policies are influenced by decisions and pressures from outside its borders. The literature on Canadian-American environmental policy making and international policy transfer are used to explore provincial GHG targets and carbon pricing policies. The article finds that Alberta's 2002 targets and Specified Gas Emitters Regulation were determined by economic competitiveness and leakage concerns, while the adoption of new GHG targets in 2008 and a carbon tax was the result of policy transfer through political bandwagoning and the desire for reputational benefits.

Introduction: drawing lessons from international policy-transfer initiatives in regional and urban development and spatial planning

ABSTRACTThe collection of papers in this issue brings new insights to the processes of international policy transfer and learning in the fields of regional and urban development policy, regional innovation and transit-oriented development. It explores, through the perspective of different disciplines, the motivations of actors, tangible and non-tangible outputs, the role of factors affecting the process, and the spillover effects of such process. The contributions bring new insights into what represents success and failure in policy transfer and provide valuable lessons for policy-makers facing the challenges of a fast-changing global context.

EU–China and EU–Brazil policy transfer in regional policy

ABSTRACTThe paper investigates the European Union (EU)–Brazil and EU–China regional policy dialogues, viewed as vectors of cross-national policy transfer. Regional policy is considered as having limited transfer potential due to its inward orientation, context specificity and complexity. Yet, knowledge exchange and voluntary policy transfer have taken place between the EU and Brazil and between the EU and China since the mid-2000s. The study investigates and compares actors, motivations, mechanisms of transfer, conditioning factors and types of outcomes, shedding a light on the under-researched phenomenon of international policy transfer in regional policy.

Educational Flagships as Brokers in International Policy Transfer: Learning from the Experience of Kazakhstan

In this article we analyze a recent development in educational reform in Kazakhstan, which presents interest to researchers of policy transfer/borrowing. We argue not only that international policy transfer has become the main approach to educational reform, but also that the approach has been institutionalized by the establishment of a specialized organizational structure, represented by a system of flagship institutions at different levels of education, which were assigned the role of identifying, adapting, testing, and disseminating the best international practices. Reconsidering policy transfer at the organizational level as knowledge transfer, we use ideas from interorganizational learning theory to interpret the narrative data from interviews with the employees of the flagships and of the educational organizations, to which they disseminate best practices. In doing so, we attempt to explore the factors which may influence the success of institutionalized policy transfer from brokers to downstream adopters of innovation.

Does Hypocrisy Matter? National Reputational Damage and British Anti-Corruption Mentoring in the Balkans

In the late 2000s, numerous prominent public commentators raised concerns that corruption scandals were harming Britain’s ability to play a leadership role in anti-corruption initiatives abroad. With a view to contributing to critical criminological scholarship on international policy transfer and double standards in criminal justice policy and practice, this article explores the extent to which reputational damage curtailed Britain’s appeal as an anti-corruption mentor in South-East Europe during the 2000s. Challenging the common presumption that stronger states tarnished by corruption scandals will face ‘hypocricy costs’ abroad, this article finds that a range of factors work to insulate stronger states from the potential ramifications of reputational decline.

THE ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL POLICY TRANSFER WITHIN THE MULTIPLE STREAMS APPROACH: THE CASE OF SMART ELECTRICITY METERING IN AUSTRALIA

This article draws on Kingdon's Multiple Streams Approach (MSA) to consider international, not just domestic, flows of policy. It is argued that using the MSA in conjunction with international policy transfer and mobility theories allows for a fuller explanation of the development of smart electricity metering policy in Australia. The MSA is based originally on empirical research within a single country – the USA – in the late 1970s, and all three of the ‘streams’ identified as important to policy change – problems, politics and policy – are conceptualized as domestic. While recent scholarship has broadened the application of the MSA beyond nation state boundaries, it is argued that there is scope to further develop such ideas. In particular, the notion of policy mobility is introduced to capture issues about the globalization of policy, the role of non‐state actors and the material substance of policy.

The Missing Link in Donor Prescribed Educational Reforms: Lack of Ownership (The Case of the World Bank in Ethiopian Higher Education)

The World Bank (WB) as an international policy transfer and diffusion agent has been actively involved in orchestrating and driving Higher Education (HE) reforms globally. Such impact of the Bank has arguably, been more evident in the context of loan recipient countries. By using a hard mode of influence (financial), and more subtle or soft modes of influence (knowledge based and symbolic), the Bank has been steering the HE system of loan recipient countries, to which Ethiopia is not an exception. The Bank justifies its involvement by illuminating on the capacity deficit that is widely prevalent in borrowing countries. Notwithstanding, the solid expert base the Bank has, this paper contends that, the Bank is not creating sufficient spaces for local actors to collaborate in. Even when the Bank creates avenues to stimulate discussion on proposed reform ideas, such platforms merely serve the purpose of legitimizing the predetermined reforms ideas of the Bank rather than giving national actors a genuine opportunity to critically challenge, the purported reform ideas of the Bank. This has resulted in, among other things; failure to capitalize on the HE expertise of loan recipient countries, the crafting of reforms that do not resonate with borrowing countries context and most importantly, lack of ownership of the proposed reforms and their sustainability. In line with that, this paper argues for a shift in approach from the current strong top-down approach to a balanced approach that gives sufficient spaces and most importantly recognition for bottom up actors, ideas and initiatives .

Global aspirations and local talent: the development of creative higher education in Singapore

This paper explores higher education development and policy shifts in Singapore over the last decade, within a landscape of an increasingly globalised creative economy and international cultural policy transfer. Using qualitative interviews with key players in policy and higher education institutions, the paper aims to explain the push and pull factors behind investment in creative higher education. It considers the emerging dynamics and diverse patterns, embedded in a society where higher education interactions with economic development have a long history and pragmatic rationale. While still in the early days of these investments, the paper argues that there are some global policy lessons to be learnt from the case of Singapore and the role that higher education can play in developing a creative economy, while striving to overcome issues of over-supply and innate vulnerability of creative careers.

The Evolution of Cash Transfers inIndonesia: Policy Transfer and National Adaptation

AbstractCash transfers became a subject of international policy transfer, but the underlying policy process is far more complex than simple policy diffusion. In order to understand the development of cash transfers inIndonesia, it is necessary to examine the long‐term policy evolution in the context of national politics. This paper analyses the policy evolution of cash transfers in Indonesia, focusing on the policy decision process at the national level since theAsian economic crisis. It tracks three critical conjunctures of social protection for the poor in which Indonesia tried to adapt cash transfer schemes and institutional frameworks, and eventually consolidated the social protection system. Cash transfers have been adapted inIndonesia in keeping with the strong political motivations of top policymakers for popular support in the context of democratisation, but policy transfers of cash transfers provided an important impetus for the development of social protection system inIndonesia.

International Policy Transfer and Domestic Politics. The Limited Effectiveness of National Environmental Strategies in Romania

Article International Policy Transfer and Domestic Politics. The Limited Effectiveness of National Environmental Strategies in Romania was published on March 1, 2015 in the journal Comparative Southeast European Studies (volume 63, issue 3).

Middlemen and midwives of reform: the in-between worlds of Albanian educational policy-makers and professionals

Based on a vertical case study in post-communist Albania, this article examines how three local experts become ‘in-betweens’ who strategically mediate processes of social change. For example, they negotiate constructions of time and place, East and West, policy and practice, state and society. As they localise global educational models, the ‘in-betweens’ concurrently engage in re-making cultural meaning. This analysis thus enhances our understanding of the cultural complexity of international educational policy transfer and localisation.

The indelible footmarks of the World Bank in the higher education of the developing world: the case of Ethiopia

The World Bank, as an international policy transfer agent, has had a tremendous impact on the direction of higher education development in developing countries. It plays a significant role by mobilizing resources, generating knowledge and providing leadership. The Bank has also been a subject of serious criticisms for the approach it followed pursuing its development goals in borrowing countries. This paper explores the methods of influence used by the Bank and specifically focuses on how the World Bank has impacted the higher education system of Ethiopia. It discusses some of the criticisms against the Bank and argues that, considering the lack of institutional capacity and prevalence of corruption in Ethiopia, the Bank is, in a way, justified in its insistence on strict requirements. The paper also points out that the World Bank is in a better position to bridge stakeholders and resolve the paucity of consultation and consensus, which is a major drawback in the Ethiopian higher education reform process.