Policy Diffusion Research Articles

Universal Refugee Social Protection Guidelines: A Discussion into the Challenges to Their Successful Adoption

AbstractThis paper discusses some of the impediments to the realization of refugee-specific conventions and the international bill of human rights content, i.e., the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the UDHR. The discrepancy highlights a broader failure in the diffusion of the global refugee regime and underscores the disparity between the intentions of global policy and its real-world impact. Challenges to global social policy diffusion (and the resultant implementation gaps in Africa) are examined through the use of secondary data on refugees in South Africa and the region. Also examined is the content of human rights conventions and their adoption. The challenges noted include (i) compulsory forms of power within the global governance system and constraints on the global refugee regime; (ii) protracted social conflict situations, funding gaps, geopolitical reordering and an ensuing lack of cohesion amongst stakeholders in the transference of global social policy and (iii) limitations in the content of refugee rights and a poor alignment of the said content at the national and local contexts.

Universal free school meals: Examining factors influencing adoption of the Community Eligibility Provision

AbstractRecognizing school meals as critical safety nets for children in low‐income households, many states are passing legislation to adopt universal free school meals, linking their funding to the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), a federally funded universal free school meal program. However, about half of all eligible school districts did not participate in CEP in the school year 2018–2019. Using a policy diffusion approach and a Cox regression model, this research demonstrates the importance of a school district's identified student percentage (poverty level) and a state's direct certification rate (certifying students for free meals) in increasing the likelihood of CEP adoption.

Comparative Analysis of Environmental Protection Laws and Their Impact on Sustainable Development in Rwanda

Purpose: The aim of the study was to analyze comparative analysis of environmental protection laws and their impact on sustainable development in Rwanda. Methodology: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low cost advantage as compared to a field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries. Findings: Environmental protection laws play a crucial role in sustainable development, particularly in Rwanda where the balance between economic growth and environmental integrity is pivotal. A comparative analysis reveals that systematic inclusion of environmental impact assessments and strategic environmental assessments are essential for fostering sustainable development. These processes ensure that environmental considerations are integrated into the planning and decision-making stages of development projects, thereby mitigating negative impacts on the environment. Capacity building at various levels, from macro to micro, is recommended to enhance the understanding and implementation of these laws. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Legal pluralism, policy diffusion & institutional analysis may be used to anchor future studies on comparative analysis of environmental protection laws and their impact on sustainable development in Rwanda. Practitioners can leverage findings from such studies to identify best practices, lessons learned, and areas for improvement in environmental governance. Policymakers should use comparative analysis findings to inform the design, implementation, and evaluation of environmental policies and regulations at local, national, and global levels.

Policy diffusion in global biodiversity conservation: Learning, competition, coercion, and emulation amid US–China great‐power politics

AbstractCoordinated policies and effective global environmental governance are needed to address the global biodiversity crisis. Human dimensions like geopolitics influence conservation decision‐making and outcomes. The importance of considering these complex social factors is heightened in an era of renewed great‐power politics, as the intensifying US–China rivalry has direct implications for environmental governance and biodiversity outcomes. Can the US–China rivalry and its confrontational dynamics be channeled into conservation policymaking to improve biodiversity outcomes? Drawing from international relations and policy studies, policy diffusion theory can provide conservationists with useful insights into the interdependency of policy decisions. Here, we examine the four mechanisms—competition, coercion, learning, and emulation—of the classic model of policy diffusion theory in the context of environmental policymaking. We explore a case study for each mechanism to illustrate how it can benefit biodiversity conservation, and point to examples of relevant policies and actions that could improve outcomes. To operationalize this concept for conservation, we present a decision tree that conservationists can use to determine the most relevant policy diffusion mechanism in different policy contexts. Upon determining the appropriate mechanism, conservationists can take further steps to intentionally trigger the mechanism and catalyze conservation policy diffusion across jurisdictions.

Policy Diffusion Among Domestic Political Parties in Multiparty Systems: An Analysis of Election Manifestos of Indian Political Parties

Policy Diffusion Among Domestic Political Parties in Multiparty Systems: An Analysis of Election Manifestos of Indian Political Parties

Implications of Climate Change Litigation for Environmental Law and Policy in Ghana

Purpose: The aim of the study was to examine implications of climate change litigation for environmental law and policy in Ghana Methodology: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low cost advantage as compared to a field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries. Findings: The study found that the implications of climate change litigation for environmental law and policy in Ghana underscore the urgent need for robust legal frameworks and adaptive policy responses to address the multifaceted challenges posed by climate change. While Ghana has made strides in enacting environmental legislation and participating in international climate agreements, the increasing frequency and severity of climate-related impacts necessitate greater legal clarity, enforcement mechanisms, and stakeholder engagement to enhance climate resilience and adaptation efforts. Climate change litigation provides a crucial avenue for affected communities, civil society organizations, and environmental advocates to hold governments and corporations accountable for their contributions to climate change and their obligations to protect the environment and uphold human rights. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Legal Mobilization Theory, Policy Diffusion Theory & Ecological Modernization Theory may be used to anchor future studies on implications of climate change litigation for environmental law and policy in Ghana. Encourage strategic litigation that targets key actors, industries, and policy arenas to maximize the impact of legal interventions on environmental protection and climate action. This involves identifying leverage points within existing legal frameworks and leveraging innovative legal strategies, such as public trust doctrines and rights-based approaches, to advance environmental objectives. Foster greater integration of climate change litigation outcomes into national and international environmental policy-making processes. Governments and intergovernmental organizations should proactively incorporate legal precedents, court decisions, and settlement agreements into policy development, implementation, and evaluation.

Quantitative evaluation of the medicine innovation policy in China: based on the PMC-Index model.

Medicine innovation is crucial in promoting the sustainable development of medicine undertakings, which has significant economic and social benefits. China is the main force in global medicine consumption, with a huge demand for innovative medicines. Thus, the Chinese government releases a series of policies aimed at providing scientific and reasonable guidance for medicine innovation. However, there is inadequate quantitative evaluation and comparison of various medicine innovation policies in the existing studies. This paper adopts the approach of text mining and the Policy Modeling Consistency Index (PMC-Index) model to construct an evaluation system and then quantitatively evaluates and compares the traditional Chinese medicine innovation policies (TCMIPs), the biological medicine innovation policies (BMIPs), and the multiple medicine innovation policies (MMIPs) in China. The results indicate that: (1) The three types of drug innovation policies have similarities in content and goal through comparative analysis of high-frequency words, while they also have their own characteristics. (2) The average PMC-Index of 29 TCMIPs is 5.77, which has the highest policy bad rate (21%); the average PMC-Index of 12 BMIPs is 6.21, which has the highest policy good rate (92%); moreover, the average PMC-Index of 35 MMIPs is 6.06, which has the highest policy excellence rate (26%). (3) The BMIPs, MMIPs, and TCMIPs have similar scores on policy object, policy orientation, policy timeliness, policy evaluation, and policy accessibility, while they differ significantly mainly on policy nature, incentive method, policy function, policy issuing agency, and policy instrument. This study contributes to a comprehensive understanding of medicine innovation policies in China, in order to provide theoretical support for future policy formulation and optimization in the medicine industry. Moreover, we expand the application scenarios of policy diffusion theory.

Diffusion of “dual carbon” policies among Chinese cities: A network evolution analysis

Numerous regions across China have introduced “dual carbon” policies, yet the response of cities to these policies remains unclear. In this study, we used emission data from 271 Chinese cities for the years 2010, 2015, and 2020 to construct a complex network of urban carbon emissions with a modified gravity model. To further investigate the drivers of the “dual carbon” policy diffusion, we conducted a simulation of network evolution under the two policy diffusion mechanisms of coercion and learning. Our findings indicate that the “dual carbon” policy exhibits a network diffusion effect, with cost-effectiveness serve as a critical factor influencing its spread. And the China's low carbon price lacks incentives for reduction, carbon pricing needs to be increased and differentiated emission reduction incentives, penalties for over-emission, and carbon quotas based on the type of decoupling of the city need to be introduced to facilitate the diffusion of policies. Additionally, through counterfactual scenario analysis and an exploration of network structural characteristics, we highlighted the vital role of cities with high betweenness centrality within urban agglomerations in facilitating efficient policy diffusion. This study also offers a process for selecting pilot cities, providing a valuable reference for future policy initiatives.

Why do local governments privatize? Political representation and contagion in the privatization of welfare services in Sweden

AbstractPrevious research has highlighted that decentralization is key to understanding the marketization of the Swedish welfare state, while local political factors are important to explaining the subnational differences in actual degrees of welfare service privatization. Other research has highlighted the impact of pragmatism rather than ideology in local government's decisions to outsource welfare services, including policy diffusion through geographical proximity to highly privatized municipalities. However, little research has been done on the role or type of political representation and whether this matters to the diffusion of welfare service privatization. Thus, there is little knowledge about whether local governments are primarily responsive to public preferences, the ideological position of the local government, or influences from neighboring municipalities. Drawing on the literature on political representation and policy diffusion, I test three hypotheses: that the local governments are primarily responsive to public preferences (sanction representation), that local governments are primarily responsive to their own ideological position (gyroscopic representation), or that local governments are primarily influenced by outsourcing in neighboring municipalities (contagion). Using a time‐lagged correlational design with survey data covering both local politicians and ordinary municipal residents, as well as public accounts of municipal outsourcing, I find that public preferences play a negligible role to the privatization process. A minor part of the between‐municipal variation in welfare service privatization can be attributed to the preferences of local politicians (gyroscopic representation), while a more substantial part is due to pressures from outsourcing among municipal neighbors (contagion).

Policy diffusion across political ideologies: explaining Denmark’s desire to externalise asylum

In 2021, the Danish Social Democratic government tabled a bill allowing asylum seekers to be transferred to another country to process claims and provide protection. Witnessing a Social Democratic government embracing this highly controversial idea, even though less than a handful of right-wing governments outside Europe had previously outsourced asylum, is puzzling. Policy diffusion theory is used to explain the underlying mechanism and analyse the justification strategies. In the face of public attention focused on the refugee protection crisis between 2014 and 2016, the Social Democrats embraced the idea of externalising asylum in order to be recognised as responsive problem solvers. Essentially, they employed three strategies to justify the policy and to mask its origin and its inconsistency with the party’s ideology: (1) referring to policy advisors as the original source of the idea; (2) reframing externalisation as a humanitarian project; and (3) shifting the narrative about Social Democratic identity.

Episodic populist backlashes against urban climate actions

Populism is multilayered and involves two main dimensions – ideology and strategy – which are employed within and beyond political parties. These dimensions can result in sometimes overlapping but generally divergent backlashes, targeting specific climate and sustainability interventions in cities. This critical commentary presents episodic populist backlashes against urban climate actions by exploring how they create their own political landscapes across the political spectrum in cities against progressive urban climate agendas. Specifically, the article examines how episodic populist backlashes manifest on an urban scale and highlights the need for urban scholars to pay more attention to the phenomenon. The article proposes two complementary explanations for why populism precedes urban climate actions in episodic and thematic ways. These explanations include policy backlashes against diffused global climate norms in cities, and counter-movements and rhetoric against climate justice and what it entails, such as inclusion in decision-making and intersectionality. The article then concludes by offering a research agenda on the episodic populist backlashes against urban climate actions, which highlights the need for a better understanding of how episodic populist movements might emerge into global climate policy diffusion, and climate justice coupled with intersectionality in cities of the Global North and Global South.

Development of New Generation of Artificial Intelligence in China: When Beijing’s Global Ambitions Meet Local Realities

ABSTRACT How did China become one of the leaders in AI development, and will China prevail in the ongoing AI race with the US? Existing studies have focused on the Chinese central government’s role in promoting AI. Notwithstanding the importance of the central government, a significant portion of the responsibility for AI development falls on local governments’ shoulders. Local governments have diverging interests, capacities and, therefore, approaches to promoting AI. This poses an important question: How do local governments respond to the central government’s policies on emerging technologies, such as AI? This article answers this question by examining the convergence or divergence of central and local priorities related to AI development by analysing the central and local AI policy documents and the provincial variations by focusing on the diffusion of the New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan (NGAIDP) in China. Using a unique dataset of China’s provincial AI-related policies that cite the NGAIDP, the nature of diffusion of the NGAIDP is examined by conducting content analysis and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). This study highlights the important role of local governments in China’s AI development and emphasises examining policy diffusion as a political process.

Factors Influencing Drug Prescribing for Patients with Hospitalization History in Circulatory Disease: Patient Severity, Composite Adherence, and Physician-Patient Relationship - A Retrospective Cohort Study.

With countries promoting generic drug prescribing, their growth may plateau, warranting further investigation into the factors influencing this trend, including physician and patient perspectives. Additional strategies may be needed to maximize the switch to generic drugs while ensuring healthcare system sustainability, focusing on factors beyond mere low cost. Emphasizing affordability and clarifying other prescription considerations are essential. This study aimed to provide initial insights into how patient severity, composite adherence, and physician-patient relationships impact generic switching. This study utilized a long-term retrospective cohort design by analyzing data from a national healthcare database. The population included patients of all ages, primarily older adults, who required primary-to-tertiary preventive actions with a history of hospitalization for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) (International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision) during April 2014 to March 2018 (4 years). We focused on switching to generic drugs, with temporal variations in clinical parameters as independent variables. Lifestyle factors (smoking and drinking) were also considered. Adherence was measured as a composite score comprising 11 elements. The physician-patient relationship was established based on the interval between physician change and prescription. Logistic regression analysis and propensity score matching (PSM) were employed, along with complementary analysis of physician-patient relationships, proportion of days covered (PDC), and adherence for a subset of the population. The study included 48,456 patients with an average follow-up of 36.1±8.8 months. The mean age was 68.3 ± 9.9 years, body mass index was 23.4 ± 3.4 kg/m2, systolic blood pressure was 131.2 ± 15.0 mmHg, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) was 116.6 ± 29.3 mg/dL, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) was 5.9% ± 0.8%, and serum creatinine was 0.9 ± 0.8 mg/dL. Logistic regression analysis revealed significant associations between generic switching and systolic blood pressure (odds ratio [OR], 0.996, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.993-0.999), serum creatinine levels (OR, 0.837, 95% CI: 0.729-0.962), glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase levels (OR, 0.994, 95% CI: 0.990-0.997), PDC score (OR, 0.959, 95% CI: 0.948-0.970), and adherence score (OR, 0.910, 95% CI: 0.875-0.947). Additionally, generic drug rates increased with improvements in the HbA1c level band and smoking level (P<.01, P<.001). The group with a superior physician-patient relationship after PSM had a significantly higher rate of generic drug prescribing (51.6±15.2%) than the inferior relationship group (47.7±17.7%) (P<.001). Although physicians' understanding influences the choice of generic drugs, patient condition (severity) and adherence also impact this decision. For example, improved creatinine levels are associated with generic drug choice, while stronger physician-patient relationships correlate with higher rates of generic drug utilization. These findings may contribute to the appropriate prescription of pharmaceuticals if the policy diffusion of generic drugs begins to slow down. Thus, preventing serious illness while building trust may result in clinical benefits and positive socio-economic outcomes.

Equal Employment Opportunity in Supply Chains

An equal employment opportunity (EEO) policy is an essential practice of workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion. Using a novel measure of workplace EEO based on the textual analysis of online job postings, we show a lead–lag pattern of EEO practice between principal customers and their dependent suppliers. The leadlag effect is more pronounced when principal customers enjoy greater bargaining power, consistent with the view that dependent suppliers adjust EEO policies to cater to customer preferences. We use the 2017 Diversity Campaign of the “Big Three” institutional investors as our main identification strategy to support a causal interpretation. We demonstrate that the diffusion of EEO policies along supply chains improves the likelihood of retaining female employees, implying the presence of social benefits in addition to economic advantages.

Book Review: Competition Law in South Asia: Policy Diffusion and Transfer

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Adoption of Property Tax Expenditure and Limitations by U.S. States

Property tax expenditure and limitations (TELs) are key tools used by U.S. states to control local government spending and taxing authority. This paper employs a multiple events history analysis to understand the factors influencing the adoption of county-level property tax TELs by state governments. The findings show that external factors such as policy learning, competition, imitation, and coercion play crucial roles in this process. Notably, the study reveals that higher out-migration rates and the presence of voter-based ballot initiatives significantly increase the likelihood of TEL adoption. Additionally, the spread of TELs is influenced more by national trends rather than neighboring state actions, highlighting the saliency of these policies. These findings shed light on the dynamics of policy diffusion and provide insights into the interplay between state-level decisions and local government financial autonomy. The study’s implications extend beyond public finance, offering a nuanced understanding of policy adoption and diffusion in federal systems.

Food waste tectonics: Points of friction between policy push and practice pull in council-led household-food-waste interventions in Australia

Household food waste is increasingly recognised as a global wicked problem for its greenhouse gas emissions, economic damage, and resource loss. Although targeted in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, countries can only respond according to their capacity. For Australia, national policy has put the pressure on states and territories to divert food waste away from landfill into a nascent circular economy. For councils, this increasingly means implementing a FOGO (Food Organics/Garden Organics) kerbside collection. Despite funding and infrastructure development, many are resisting. Framed by the tenets of policy diffusion, this paper presents the results of a nationwide exploratory survey aimed at identifying how and why council-based waste services staff resist, emulate or lead FOGO implementation. By assessing participants current kerbside systems and their attitudes towards household food waste management, the survey found costs, contamination, and capacity and were key concerns. However, responses to these varied considerably despite similarities of situation, often relating more to collaborative attitudes across waste services, council, and councillors. This paper recognises that a conducive environment for change is urgently needed for Australia to achieve organics diversion targets and shift household food towards a circular economy. It provides a starting point for further research into the complex and nuanced dynamics between council waste services and FOGO implementations, from external drivers and council paradigms to individual attitudes and perceptions.

Facilitating Policy Innovation in the Middle East

There is a need to ensure the effective transfer and diffusion of successful policy innovations that facilitate sustainable development in the Middle East region. However, to date there has been limited research on policy innovation in the Middle East region through theories such as policy diffusion, with most studies focused on North America and Western Europe. The following short essay represents an attempt to highlight this shortfall, stimulate discussion on what key factors could facilitate policy innovation in the Middle East, and promote further studies to address this imbalance. This is a theoretical study that primarily examines three theories that address the spread of policy innovation between governments: policy diffusion, policy laboratories, and borrowing strength. These theories are applied to different factors that influence policy innovation (geographic proximity, political ideology, culture, and networks and individuals) considered within the context of the Middle East to assess their relevance and applicability. Based on the application of these theories and key factors, the essay proposes three novel hypotheses for policy innovation, which are linked to the different factors. Each hypothesis identifies an area where it is expected that policy innovation would occur, if the theories hold true in a Middle Eastern Context. The essay contains an accompanying call to test these hypotheses within the region. It is expected that further studies in this area will be able to both test and build on the proposed hypotheses to determine the applicability of current (Western) theories to explain policy innovation in the Middle East and move towards a more comprehensive and targeted theory of policy in this region.

Navigating the Wicked Policy Problem: An In-Depth Analysis of Policy Dilemmas and Innovative Approaches for Effective Problem Solving

The UN established the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to address a variety of social, economic, and environmental issues in order to ensure a more equitable future for all. These issues are to be addressed through policy and various relevant programs. However, some policy problems are hardly fixed despite the fact that many public policies are ostensibly being developed to address them. Wicked problems keep on piling up. Policy issues such as road safety, corruption, poverty and inequality, unemployment, land disputes, environmental degradation, gender equality, and so on have drawn a growing number of policies in an effort to address them, but these issues are recognized as being essentially amorphous and stubborn, hence creating policy dilemmas. This article offers a greater grasp of the alternatives for fixing wicked problems. It considers policy networks, policy entrepreneurship, collaborative governance, data-driven decision-making, policy diffusion, decentralization, and strategic placement of street-level bureaucrats as key strategies for tackling complex policy issues. This article makes the case that an integrated policy package is best suited to address wicked policy issues. This implies that addressing wicked problems requires a multifaceted and adaptive approach, as no single problem-solving technique can consistently and reliably provide a wide-ranging result.

청소년 실천공동체 학습 모형 개발

Objectives This study aimed to develop an initial conceptual model of adolescence community of practice learning to overcome the limitations of knowledge memorization-based education and to revitalize education based on practical experiences suitable for the development of competencies required in the future society. This study sought to find ways to revitalize adolescence community of practice so that adolescence can grow educationally through more self-directed and practical experiences.&#x0D; Methods To develop the conceptual model, this study applied Randers’(1980) four-step methodology. First, for conceptualization, this study reconceptualized the general components of community of practice through literature review to fit adolescence community of practice. Second, for formalization, in-depth interviews with adolescence community of practice stakeholders were conducted to derive the constructs of the adolescence community of practice conceptual model and to illustrate the relationships among the constructs. Third, for validation, this study gathered perspectives, advice, and evaluations from experts with experience and knowledge in adolescence community of practice. The fourth step, implementation, is the policy dissemination and diffusion of the conceptual model, so this study was limited to the verification stage.&#x0D; Results The characteristics of adolescence community of practice learning model are youth's subjective interest, communication with others through joint activities, and practical activities inside and outside of school. The design principles are facilitative design principles, participatory design principles, ecological design principles. The strategies are summarized as stepping stone strategy, seed cultivation strategy, process-oriented strategy. Connecting them to the goals of the learning model, which are to have their own thoughts and language, improve communication with others, and improve problem-solving skills, this study summarized the process of forming self-interest, social expansion, and expansion of activities from self-standing to self-standing by comparing it to the life cycle of a tree.&#x0D; Conclusions By utilizing the adolescence community of practice learning model, adolescence can improve their ability to collaborate with others through education based on their interests and interests, rather than one-way transmission education centered on instructors, and they can acquire competencies by solving practical problems by themselves.&#x0D;