International Policy Transfer Research Articles

Global league tables, big data and the international transfer of educational research modalities

The international transfer of educational policy and practice has long been a key theme in comparative research and scholarship. Recent years have seen renewed attention to the processes of international policy transfer, with new understandings emerging from innovative theorising and analysis. This article examines the nature and implications of such work, explores the potential for further theoretical and methodological advances, and considers why and how future comparative research might engage in: critical analyses of the use of findings derived from international comparisons of performance and achievement; socio-cultural contributions to the emerging ‘big data’ debate; and empirically grounded studies of the international transfer of educational research and evaluation modalities.

Modes of prison administration, control and governmentality in Latin America: adoption, adaptation and hybridity

This article analyses processes of international policy transfer and diffusion in an understudied aspect of security sector reform: prisons. It looks at how Latin American countries, especially Brazil, have responded to a growing security crisis of capacity, effectiveness and violence within their prison systems by adopting, adapting and even resisting reform models available globally in three reform areas: prison administration (state-run versus forms of privatisation and public-private partnerships); control (the technologies of super-max versus the intelligence- and relationship-centred approach of dynamic security); and governmentality (the ethos underpinning state and societal treatment of offenders as subjects and objects of penal discipline). It also examines how Brazil has produced its own home-grown models of penal governance—prisons run by civil society in partnership with the state—which challenge some of the current dominant tropes in prison reform. The globalisation of neoliberal modes of governance may often aim at institutional monocropping, and isomorphism certainly occurs, yet examination of actual practices confirms that Brazil, and the region, have adopted a hybridised diversity of penal reforms.

Common Ground in Australia: An Object Lesson in Evidence Hierarchies and Policy Transfer

Developed in New York City in 1990, the Common Ground model of supportive housing has recently been embraced in Australia as a high-profile solution to chronic homelessness. Combining on-site support services with a congregate housing form accommodating ex-homeless people and low-income adults, Common Ground is presented as an innovative model which permanently ends homelessness, enhances wellbeing, and strengthens communities. This article critically examines the process of transferring the model into Australia's social housing sector, drawing on the perspectives of the high-level stakeholders closely involved. It argues that, despite official commitments to evidence-based policy, the ‘advocacy coalition’ driving this international policy transfer employed a ‘knowledge hierarchy’ wherein professional intuition and personal experience were afforded a higher status than formal evaluative evidence. The article provides an example of the contested nature of what ‘counts as evidence’ in housing and homelessness policy, and considers what role academic research – as well as other knowledge sources – should play in the policy development process.

Post-war reconstruction, policy transfer and the World Bank: the case of Afghanistan's National Solidarity Programme

This article investigates the role of the World Bank as an agent of international policy transfer in post-war reconstruction and development. A heuristic method which integrates policy transfer network theory, participant observation and implementation analysis is developed and then used to map the process of policy-oriented learning underpinning the emergence and development of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan's National Solidarity Programme (NSP). Drawing on the findings of a mid-term evaluation conducted by the authors for the World Bank it reveals that initial World Bank funding of the NSP was opportunistic; a voluntary form of policy transfer emerged from a cohesive policy transfer network which mainly drew lessons from the Kecamatan Development Project (KDP) in Indonesia, leading to the development of a culturally insensitive model of community-driven development; but due to the technocratic expertise of key indigenous actors and the technical support of facilitating partners, these elements of the programme were successfully mitigated during operational delivery. It concludes that ‘Rational’ lesson-drawing which avoids the ‘learning paradox’ – learning that leads to inappropriate transfer – can be successful. In other words, lesson-drawing can be a progressive learning activity, but only if the programme is culturally assimilated through comprehensive evaluation and piloting, builds on existing organisational strengths and is transferred by high-quality indigenous knowledge elites. Local solutions must be found to local problems which deliver public value in terms of direct social or economic benefits to the citizenry. Indeed, although development outcomes have been less than impressive, the NSP has delivered significant gains to the Afghan people with regard to institution-building and social solidarity at the national and community levels.

From London to Beijing: Training and Development as an Agent of Policy Learning in Public Management

The education and training of international public managers is a powerful mechanism for policy learning and transfer. In a way similar to the globalization of MBA studies, which has contributed to the international diffusion of Western derived management concepts, a number of countries are investing in overseas training programs for their public servants to bring back international “know how” and good practice. Although this practice has been coterminous with the expansion of relatively easier and affordable international travel, policy learning activity in the area of administrative reform appears to have intensified. Though largely undocumented, the UK has witnessed a sharp increase in the number of cohorts of Chinese civil servants arriving to enroll in short courses. Many of these courses are conducted outside the University system and are arranged and hosted by independent organizations. Despite this being a growth industry, the impacts are unclear and raise a number of questions, such as, what is being learned about UK public administration and how much of it is being transferred back to China? What is it about UK public administration that has particular appeal to China? Although training and development may have a multiple agenda, the assumption is that its primary purpose is to facilitate knowledge transfer. This article sets out to understand whether this recent trend constitutes an agent of international policy transfer between Britain and China. To do this, the article analyses the nature of policy learning from the UK within a cohort of senior Chinese public servants.

Probation in Romania: Archaeology of a Partnership

The intention of this paper is to contribute to the international debate on penal policy transfer by describing the development of a probation service in Romania following the policy transfer schema developed by Dolowitz and Marsh (1996). Both authors of this article played a role in the establishment of probation in Romania and this article provides an ‘inside story’. Our conclusion is that both the debate and practices of policy transfer have been too simplistic to capture the dynamic and complex nature of international policy transfer and, indeed, that the notion of policy transfer itself is ill conceived. We demonstrate how partnership, when applied to international penal policy and practice developments, provides a potentially useful model.

The Kiwi Connection: Reflections on Local Governance Policy Transfer between the UK and New Zealand

Local governance policy has been transferred between the United Kingdom and New Zealand since the mid-nineteenth century. In recent decades, however, the processes of exchange have become more complex and more bidirectional. This article argues that contemporary policy transfer is the product of a complex interchange involving three spheres of analysis: ideological and political forces, ideas in good currency and the roles of scholars in cross-national exchange. The article concludes by considering the changing roles of academics in international policy transfer. It suggests that scholarship in this area needs to be encouraged and developed.

The Politics and Economics of Comparison

The Politics and Economics of Comparison

Policy transfer as learning: capturing variation in what decision-makers learn from epistemic communities

Almost two decades ago, Peter M. Haas formulated the epistemic community framework as a method for investigating the influence of knowledge-based experts in international policy transfer. Specifically, the approach was designed to address decision-making instances characterized by technical complexity and uncertainty. Control over the production of knowledge and information enables epistemic communities to articulate cause and effect relationships and so frame issues for collective debate and export their policy projects globally. Remarkably, however, we still know very little about the variety of ways in which decision-makers actually learn from epistemic communities. This article argues that variety is best captured by differentiating the control enjoyed by decision-makers and epistemic communities over the production of substantive knowledge (or means) that informs policy from the policy objectives (or ends) to which that knowledge is directed. The implications of this distinction for the types of epistemic community decision-maker learning exchanges that prevail are elaborated using a typology of adult learning from the education literature which delineates four possible learning situations. This typology is then applied to a comparative study of US and EU decision-makers’ interaction with the epistemic community that formed around the regulation of the biotech milk yield enhancer bovine somatotrophin (rbST) to illustrate how the learning types identified in the model play out in practice.

Reflexive Local and Regional Economic Development and International Policy Transfer

This article looks at the international dimension of local and regional economic development policy. We illustrate our argument about the difficulties of comparing the relative effectiveness of policy using the experience of a comparative study of local and regional economic development in Australia, the US, England and Northern Ireland. The empirical work suggests that the preferred tools of local economic development and their locally perceived effectiveness vary but that careful interpretation is necessary to understand why this is the case. Given that international policy exchange is neither inherently bad nor good, but that it is inevitable, we argue for further exploration of the process of cross-national policy transfer to ensure we are learning appropriate lessons.

Urban Transport Policy Transfer in Central and Eastern Europe

European Territorial Cooperation is one important context in which partners from across the whole of Europe meet and learn from each other. Naturally, the involvement of partners from Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries in this process is increasing as a consequence of the expansion of Europe, particularly the accession of ten new EU member states in 2004, and two more in 2007. Various examples can be found where CEE countries are seeking to catch up politically and economically by drawing lessons from policies in more developed countries. The uncertainties of policy-making in some of these countries have made policy transfer a particularly attractive option, as politicians see it as the quickest solution to many problems without having to reinvent the wheel. This paper focuses on international policy-transfer and lesson-drawing, looking specifically at how urban transport concepts and ideas have been transferred from Western Europe to two CEE countries. In these cases, the social and economic situations in the “borrowing” and “lending” countries are very different. So too, are the institutional frameworks. As a consequence, successful policy transfer is much more complex than mere copying or emulation. The paper argues that large-scale institutional transformations are neither feasible nor desirable to produce results that benefit cities in CEE countries. Small initiatives with straightforward, comparatively short-term outcomes and moderate budgets often work better and keep momentum going for further steps towards more sustainable urban transport policies and programs.

Globalising the Local: A Genealogy of Sector Policing in South Africa

A framework for analysing policy transfer developed by David Dolowitz and David Marsh has begun to attract the attention of criminologists interested in understanding how crime policies travel. This article uses this framework to assist in tracing the genealogy of a style of local, geographically responsible `sector' policing which is currently being implemented by the South African Police Service. After locating sector policing as a distinctive approach within the broader tradition of community policing, the article considers the origins and development of geographically responsible policing in Great Britain and the United States before focusing on its adoption and adaptation in post-apartheid South Africa. Answers to the seven questions suggested by Dolowitz and Marsh's framework are then sought in an effort to understand more fully the genealogy of sector policing in South Africa and the role of international policy transfer in it.

Learning to Live with Loans? International Policy Transfer and the Funding of Higher Education

Over the last decade or so a number of OECD economies have migrated from providing higher education free at the point of consumption to levying user charges. However, rather than charges for tuition being paid up‐front, contributions have taken the form of income‐contingent loans. Graduates therefore contribute to the costs of their education, after they have graduated and when they are earning. The earliest example of this instrument was in Australia, with the introduction of the Higher Education Contributions Scheme (HECS). This paper argues that following their successful introduction in Australia, income‐contingent loans offer a good example of successful international policy transfer, with elements of that scheme being adopted and modified for use in New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom. The paper reviews the conditions for successful policy transfer and discusses the reasons why the arrangements have not proliferated in non‐OECD countries.

Vouchers for Teacher Education (Non)Reform in Mongolia: Transitional, Postsocialist, or Antisocialist Explanations?

Previous articleNext article No AccessVouchers for Teacher Education (Non)Reform in Mongolia: Transitional, Postsocialist, or Antisocialist Explanations?Gita Steiner‐KhamsiGita Steiner‐Khamsi Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Comparative Education Review Volume 49, Number 2May 2005 Sponsored by the Comparative and International Education Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/428103 Views: 90Total views on this site Citations: 6Citations are reported from Crossref © 2005 by the Comparative and International Education Society. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Chanwoong Baek Understanding windows for global policy: an examination of the Free-Semester Program in Korea, Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education 51, no.33 (Jun 2019): 398–415.https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2019.1620595Aliya Kuzhabekova, Arailym Soltanbekova, Ainur Almukhambetova Educational Flagships as Brokers in International Policy Transfer: Learning from the Experience of Kazakhstan, European Education 50, no.44 (Oct 2017): 353–370.https://doi.org/10.1080/10564934.2017.1365306Barbara Schulte Envisioned and enacted practices: educational policies and the ‘politics of use’ in schools, Journal of Curriculum Studies 50, no.55 (Sep 2018): 624–637.https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2018.1502812 William Gaudelli, Hanadi Shatara Developing Global Citizens? Possibilities and Problems of Youth-Conference Programming, Journal of Research in Curriculum Instruction 20, no.33 (Jun 2016): 208–219.https://doi.org/10.24231/rici.2016.20.3.208Daniel Hammett and Lynn Staeheli Transition and the Education of the New South African Citizen, Comparative Education Review 57, no.22 (Jul 2015): 309–331.https://doi.org/10.1086/669123Frances Vavrus and Maud Seghers Critical Discourse Analysis in Comparative Education: A Discursive Study of “Partnership” in Tanzania’s Poverty Reduction Policies Vavrus and Seghers, Comparative Education Review 54, no.11 (Jul 2015): 77–103.https://doi.org/10.1086/647972

The emergence of political priority for safe motherhood in Honduras.

Each year an estimated 500,000 to 600,000 women die due to complications from childbirth, making this one of the leading causes of death globally for women in their reproductive years. In 1987 a global initiative was launched to address the problem, but few developing countries since then have experienced a documented significant decline in maternal mortality levels. Honduras represents an exception. Between 1990 and 1997 the country's maternal mortality ratio--the number of deaths due to complications during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period per 100,000 live births--declined 40% from 182 to 108, one of the largest reductions ever documented in such a short time span in the developing world. This paper draws on three political science literatures--constructivist international relations theory, policy transfer and agenda-setting--to explain how political priority for safe motherhood emerged in Honduras, a factor that underpinned the decline. Central to the explanation is the unusually cooperative relationship that developed between international donors and national health officials, resulting in effective transfer of policy and institutionalization of the cause within the domestic political system. The paper draws out implications of the case for understanding the political dynamics of health priority generation in developing countries.

Competency, Bureaucracy, and Public Management Reform: A Comparative Analysis

Competency can be considered a central theme in contemporary public service reforms. This article analyzes the development of competency frameworks for senior public servants at the national–government level in three countries (the U.S., the U.K., and Germany). By tracing the development of competency as an idea, it is shown that competency reforms drew selectively on management ideas, and by tracing the nature and time‐patterns of competency reform developments in the three countries, it is shown that competency came onto the reform agenda at different times and by various routes rather than by a simple pattern of international policy transfer or business‐to‐government transfer. It is argued that the adoption of competency frameworks took place at critical junctures for preexisting public service bargains or agreements in each case and that they were shaped by the particularities of institutional context. However, although competency is arguably central to public service reform, it is far from clear that the competency frameworks in these three cases contributed to the declared aims of many contemporary public service reformers.