Policy Transfer Research Articles

A Federalism-Based Comparative Analysis to Diminish National Security Threats in Contemporary Policy Transfer

This essay reviews the source of national security threats embedded in contemporary policy transfer processes. The subject of this research are the processes within policy transfer tied to NGO’s and international organizations. The goal of this exercise consists on designing a replicable framework to policy transfer to be implemented by the state in all its stages in the absence of external entities as a mean to diminish the threats to national security. This essay begins by analyzing the worldwide demand for knowledge under the Dolowitz-Marsh approach to review the role of NGO’s and other international organizations involved in the contemporary processes of policy transfer. The author analyzes Stone’s concept of methodological nationalism according to evaluation of policy results in relation to international standards. Under this framework is concluded that NGO’s and international organizations can contribute to the production of knowledge, however their relationship with the state typically expands beyond the results of activity thereafter increasing the risks to national security by their influence beyond accountability and control. In order to achieve the set research goal, this essay provides a novel framework to policy transfer based on federalism-base comparative analysis due to the availability of multidimensional data. The author concludes on the need to disassociate external entities from policy transfer processes according to a federalism-based comparative analysis and provides a series of steps to perform it. In this manner, the state will remain interconnected to global sources of information and processes while retaining its sovereignty in a contemporary setting.

Policy transfer and health policymaking process: The case of social health insurance in Ghana

Since the introduction of the user fee system of healthcare financing in 1969 and its subsequent modifications, the burden of healthcare expenditure on residents of Ghana created health inequality. This system encouraged the poor and vulnerable to have limited access to essential drugs and services. Policy entrepreneurs contributed to raising awareness about the poor and vulnerable people in Ghana not having access to health due to the user fee system as a public policy problem. This awareness began to spread among political leaders, the masses, and professional groups, warranting the attention of policymakers. As significant public dissatisfaction and agitation against the user fee policy continued, the media continued to hold the government responsible for initiating the policy. The democratization process and election period between 1998 and 2000 provided a window of opportunity that led to the idea of health policy change. In 2003, Ghana established the National Social Health Insurance, a form of Social Health Insurance. This study examines the process of establishing the social health insurance scheme through policy transfer framework. First, the paper examines Ghana’s health policy after independence, the National Health Service, and the User Fee Policy that was implemented in 1985. Second, the paper accessed the policy transfer framework and applied it to the transfer of social health insurance. Third, the paper explains the radical change from the user fee policy to the social health insurance model. This essay uses time series analysis and comparative analysis to assess the impact of the social health insurance on the under-five mortality ratio, maternal mortality ratio and out-of-pocket expenditure. The assessment results show that the social health insurance scheme has a positive impact on under-five mortality, maternal mortality and out-of-pocket payment compared to Nigeria without social health insurance for the poor and other vulnerable groups. The paper concludes that policy transfer alone cannot be a single variable to explain radical health policy change, but when combined with other complementary perspectives, an empirically grounded account of policy change can be developed.

Legal transfers of migration law: the case for an interdisciplinary approach

This article provides an introduction to the study of legal transfers/ transplants and its application in the context of comparative migration law. I begin by reflecting on the capacity of the methods and approaches used in the legal transfer literature to capture the nuances of the contemporary transfers of migration policies. I argue for the need for greater dialogue between the legal scholarship and work in other disciplines examining the transfer of laws and policies across jurisdictions, particularly the political science scholarship in diffusion, and the public policy work on policy transfer. I explore the relative strengths and weaknesses of these various approaches and propose transdisciplinary approaches to addressing two important methodological questions: 1) identifying whether a transfer has occurred; 2) measuring its success. I conclude with some reflections on the utility of studying legal transfers of migration policies, and why those two questions are so crucial to such inquiries.

AutoVRL: A High Fidelity Autonomous Ground Vehicle Simulator for Sim-to-Real Deep Reinforcement Learning

Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) enables cognitive Autonomous Ground Vehicle (AGV) navigation utilizing raw sensor data without a-priori maps or GPS, which is a necessity in hazardous, information poor environments such as regions where natural disasters occur, and extraterrestrial planets. The substantial training time required to learn an optimal DRL policy, which can be days or weeks for complex tasks, is a major hurdle to real-world implementation in AGV applications. Training entails repeated collisions with the surrounding environment over an extended time period, dependent on the complexity of the task, to reinforce positive exploratory, application specific behavior that is expensive, and time consuming in the real-world. Effectively bridging the simulation to real-world gap is a requisite for successful implementation of DRL in complex AGV applications, enabling learning of cost-effective policies. We present AutoVRL, an open-source high fidelity simulator built upon the Bullet physics engine utilizing OpenAI Gym and Stable Baselines3 in PyTorch to train AGV DRL agents for sim-to-real policy transfer. AutoVRL is equipped with sensor implementations of GPS, IMU, LiDAR and camera, actuators for AGV control, and realistic environments, with extensibility for new environments and AGV models. The simulator provides access to state-of-the-art DRL algorithms, utilizing a python interface for simple algorithm and environment customization, and simulation execution.

Sustainable urban mobility planning at the metropolitan scale: a review of current practices and narratives

Urban mobility systems often surpass the political-administrative boundaries of local governments. Commuting dynamics are a key variable to establish the functional scope of an urban area. Yet, most sustainable urban mobility plans are being developed by and for municipalities. There are still few experiences at the metropolitan scale. There are even fewer studies about these experiences. Our work addresses this gap. Using purposeful sampling and qualitative content analysis, we examined documents from supranational organizations and metropolitan cases. We argue that a better understanding of the collaborative tools being promoted for and used by metropolitan areas can be used to better inform policy transfer and learning in transportation. We conclude with considerations for future research on the topic.

Public Spaces and Urban Revitalization

This paper aims to provide insight into the potential of urban revitalisation interventions for improved public space in the context of African cities. Based on a review and evidence of the history, perceptions, and use of public spaces in the capital city of Angola, Luanda, the paper sheds lights on some of the challenges that surround the access to and inclusivity of quality public spaces in planned and unplanned urban set ups of African cities. Examples of urban revitalization initiatives in Luanda in turn shed light on the importance of the role of citizen adaptations and agency to tackle urban decay and the need to create public spaces that are inclusive and responsive to local needs, culture, and individual perceptions. In doing so, the paper seeks to show that the successful transfer of urban policies depends on local government leadership and support as well as a better understanding of the diverse backgrounds and perspectives of local residents and their understandings of what public space means and who they serve.

“Inspiring” Policy Transfer: Analysis of Urban Renewal in Four First-Tier Chinese Cities

Most Chinese cities have spent decades achieving urbanisation. So far, rural urbanisation has shifted to urban renewal. However, the distinction between a rapidly changing social environment and the establishment of an institution has led to the failure of urban renewal policies to sustainably achieve complete transformation through urban modernisation involving many stakeholders. Owing to the top-down political system in China, the formulation and implementation of urban renewal policies are carried out in a closed-loop process in which “decisions are issued by the central government to the local government which gives feedback to the centre”. This seems to affect urban renewal through a transfer of renewal policies in a local area. Therefore, it is essential to explore the differences between the urban renewal policies at different government levels and to analyse these policies in diverse urban contexts with multiple stakeholders. Based on the policy transfer theory, this paper selects 216 core policy texts at the state level and at the level of four first-tier cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen), and uses the methods of text mining and semantic analysis to form open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. Furthermore, it discusses the policy transfer and impact mechanism of urban renewal policy at different levels with diverse characteristics of policy subsystems. We found that the transfer of urban renewal policy occurred in China through top-down coercive vertical transfer, bottom-up combination reverse transfer, and voluntary horizontal transfer among cities. Finally, we suggest that “inspiration”-type policy transfer is an effective method to promote urban renewal in China.

The spatial effect of industrial transfer on carbon emissions under firm location decision:A carbon neutrality perspective

Climate change is a global concern. The goal of carbon neutrality and emission peak is a challenge for China and other developing countries. The carbon reduction policy for carbon neutrality and industrial transfer policy will be a research hotspot on carbon emissions. This study analyzed the spatial impact mechanism of industrial transfer on carbon emissions, especially the role of firm location decision and carbon reduction policy. Based on the dynamic deviation-share model, the industrial transfer products of 30 provinces in China during the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” and “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan” periods were measured. The spatially weighted interaction model based on improved parameters was then utilized to explore the spatial effect of industrial transfer and carbon reduction policy on regional carbon emissions. The results show that the restrictive carbon reduction policy through centrifugal effect lead to the location shift of manufacturing firms. Industrial transfer and carbon emissions are significantly related. The restrictive carbon reduction policy has significant spatial emission reduction effect. The carbon reduction policy and industrial transfer level of different region comprehensively were the key factors affecting China's carbon neutral goal. The findings have implications for optimizing the scheme of carbon emission reduction tasks allocation between regions.

Dual vocational education and training and policy transfer in the European Union policy: the case of work-based learning and apprenticeships

Dual vocational education and training and policy transfer in the European Union policy: the case of work-based learning and apprenticeships

Learning From the United States?: Policy Transfer and the Development of Chinese Higher Education Since 1978

Purpose The paper tries to analyze the impact of the American higher education model on China's higher education since the reform and opening-up, enriching the research on policy learning in comparative education by adding a Sino-U.S. case. Design/Approach/Methods This study focuses on three cases of policy learning: undergraduate education reform, the transformation of polytechnic universities into comprehensive ones, and the introduction of the tenure-track system, using academic archives, oral interviews, and policy texts. Findings This study identifies several characteristics of policy learning. First, while the influence of the United States remains dominant, other countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom, and France have also become learning targets. Second, policy learning from the United States reflects the characteristics of selective adoption, suggesting that the foreign model is partially copied and reinterpreted in the Chinese context. Originality/Value Policy transfer is a classic theme of comparative education research. Although the Western model—and the U.S. model in particular—has had a profound impact on China's higher education reform, research on the impact of the U.S. model since 1978 is limited. This study addresses this gap.

SofaGym: An Open Platform for Reinforcement Learning Based on Soft Robot Simulations.

OpenAI Gym is one of the standard interfaces used to train Reinforcement Learning (RL) Algorithms. The Simulation Open Framework Architecture (SOFA) is a physics-based engine that is used for soft robotics simulation and control based on real-time models of deformation. The aim of this article is to present SofaGym, an open-source software to create OpenAI Gym interfaces, called environments, out of soft robot digital twins. The link between soft robotics and RL offers new challenges for both fields: representation of the soft robot in an RL context, complex interactions with the environment, use of specific mechanical tools to control soft robots, transfer of policies learned in simulation to the real world, etc. The article presents the large possible uses of SofaGym to tackle these challenges by using RL and planning algorithms. This publication contains neither new algorithms nor new models but proposes a new platform, open to the community, that offers non existing possibilities of coupling RL to physics-based simulation of soft robots. We present 11 environments, representing a wide variety of soft robots and applications; we highlight the challenges showcased by each environment. We propose methods of solving the task using traditional control, RL, and planning and point out research perspectives using the platform.

Travel demand management policies: A case study of Singapore and transferability potentials for Hanoi

This research study investigates the travel demand management (TDM) strategies and solutions and associated policies through a case study of Singapore to gain knowledge and experiences, and to evaluate the potentials for policy transfer in TDM from Singapore to Hanoi, the Capital of Vietnam. The research follows a qualitative approach that critically analyzes policies from international perspectives for lesson-drawing. The ideas generated in the literature review are reinforced by the case study of Singapore that examines relevant issues to acquire insights into policy transfer initiatives in TDM. The research identifies considerable differences between Singapore and Hanoi with respect to the development objectives, social and political settings and the governance structure of the city in general, and in transport sector in particular. The results show that there are critical political, institutional, physical and social constraints on policy transfer from Singapore to Hanoi. Given the stated critical constraints, it could be premature to conduct transfer of TDM policies from Singapore to Hanoi for the time being, but the findings from the case study have significant policy implications to Hanoi, and lesson-drawing is highly valuable and attainable. An initial screening was conducted to evaluate the applicability of policies used in Singapore as a starting point to develop a comprehensive TDM framework for Hanoi. The findings of the case study in critical contextual constraints for policy transfer should be useful in developing a roadmap for the transfer of TDM policies to a growing city like Hanoi.

Mobile Mega-Event Expertise in an “East Asian Era”

An “East Asian Era” is unfolding in the hosting of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and other sports, and nonsports, mega-events. In addition to three editions of the Olympics and Paralympics, several other not as large mega-events have been or are set to be staged in East Asia over the next 5 years. How long the interest in hosting sports mega-events will continue and, if it does, who will be involved in the production of these events are the questions explored in this article. The article consists of five sections. First, we outline the context in which the growth of sports mega-events in the past four decades has occurred. Second, we sketch the theoretical and methodological approaches we use drawing on mobilities research and actor–network theory. Third, studies of knowledge management and policy transfer and mobilities associated with sports mega-events are discussed as a way of understanding the development of mobile mega-event expertise. Fourth, we examine career mobilities, networks, and the extent to which an East Asian “Mega-Event Caravan” could be said to exist or be in formation. Finally, we draw preliminary conclusions and indicate where further research is required.

New directions in conditional policy transfer to sub-Saharan Africa: the case of renewable energy policy transfer to ECOWAS by the EU

ABSTRACT This article applies the policy transfer framework and the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) to examine the transfer of renewable energy policy to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) by the European Union (EU). The transfer of policy to ECOWAS was shaped by an asymmetrical power dynamic, the use of conditionality and narratives of allyship. I argue that the EU’s conditional policy transfer obstructs domestic policymaking in West Africa, and that its narrative of allyship is undermined by the focus on economic strength. Applying the policy transfer lens to the EU’s conditionality helps to position the engagement as coercive and to examine the recipient’s response to external interference.

Freedom of Information Law in Action: From Global Explosion to Erosion in the Realm of Government Transparency

Drawing from 63 reports from journalists and non-governmental agencies spanning 25 countries, we qualitatively examine regressive trends that erode freedom of information laws. We elaborate on elements associated with FOI policy transfer successes and failures using Dolowitz and Marsh’s framework for policy transfer. We also identify factors limiting the effectiveness of FOI laws and elaborate on the enactment of other laws that undermine FOI, which we interpret using Ericson’s (2007) notion of counter-law (laws that undermine other laws). We reflect on what these findings mean for transparency, and we contemplate other strategies for gaining access to government records to foster public engagement in civic affairs.

The political economy of special economic zones: the cases of Ethiopia and Vietnam

There are over 5,000 Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the world. About 75 percent of developing economies and almost all transition economies use SEZs in their early stages of industrialization. Why have SEZs traveled so far and fast globally? How does this policy vary when it enters different national contexts? I develop an SEZ policy adoption framework for developing or transitioning countries. I then apply the framework to compare how Ethiopia and Vietnam have learned from mainland China and Taiwan’s SEZ policies. Drawing on field interviews with 53 key stakeholders, I argue that the recent wave of SEZ adoption among late industrializers is rooted in their desires to catch up, just as China and other Newly Industrialized Economies (NIEs) did. A coalition between the NIEs’ governments, private investors, and state-owned companies actively promoting their model become the key policy ambassadors in the globalization of SEZ while expanding NIE capital to emerging markets. The localization of SEZs in national contexts, however, is constrained by their extant institutional settings. My case studies demonstrate the importance of policy transfer as a driver of SEZ policy and highlight the critical role that emulation plays in late industrialization.

Munich’s developer obligations as a legal transplant to the Czech institutional context

Well-established developer-obligation models are embedded in many countries. Policy transfers might seem appropriate for adopting such schemes elsewhere. This study brings in-depth insight into the perceptions of key stakeholders on developer obligations from countries with and without such an instrument and demonstrates the barriers hindering policy transfer. We utilise the currently contemplated policy transfer of the Munich model of developer obligations (Germany) into the Czech institutional context as a case study. Our results show that an instrument successful in one institutional arrangement may be perceived as an unattainable dream elsewhere. Surprisingly, developers, instead of hindering the adoption of developer obligations, support them. They praise them for knowing all liabilities in advance, and for being partners for the public sector instead of enemies. On the other hand, differences in institutional context constitute barriers that might result in having an empty legal shell out of the transplant.

Recipe for The Global Plate

Low Indonesian culinary exports indicate that Indonesian cuisine is not well-known internationally. Culinary promotes national identity, multiethnic cultures, and tourism. On the other hand, tourism exposes local culinary practices and can become a country's international brand. Furthermore, culinary relevance to public diplomacy is recognized. Through these connections, Indonesia can utilize gastro diplomacy to capture the global culinary arts market. Indonesia can learn from Thailand and South Korea how to implement the program more effectively by using the policy transfer framework. Thailand programs addressed various elements that must be developed when opening an overseas culinary arts business. They involved governmental and non-governmental agencies because the programs are board. The South Korean program was more formalized than the Thai programs by enacting a specific law and establishing a distinct organization to oversee the program’s execution. In addition to the healthy image of South Korean cuisine and the global trend toward healthier lifestyles, South Korea's program rode the Korean pop culture wave, which set the stage for the success of the program. Based on the analysis, the recommended model for Indonesia’s program implementation consists of six components in terms of menu and target diners, regulation, responsible organizations and coordination, goals, financing sources, and personnel.

The end of an era? The decrease of the EU influence in Ibero-American digital media policy discourses

ABSTRACT Ibero-American supranational audiovisual policies were inspired by the EU media policy model and shared the idea of creating a regional audiovisual market to face Hollywood hegemony. The paper uses discursive media institutionalism and policy entrepreneur theory to assess whether the current discourse on digital media policies is largely history repeating itself or new ideas are being introduced. To analyze this crucial problem definition stage from a bottom-up perspective, the paper combines participatory observation in two film festivals and one industry event with qualitative document analysis and literature review. The findings reveal a combination of continuity and change where the policy transfer idea is still present, but the EU and its cultural discourse are no longer a reference. The overfocus on the economic perspective, and the inclusion of global players’ discourse can threaten the development of cultural policies in the region, which are losing policy entrepreneurs support and space for debate.

Ownership in international vocational education and training transfer: The example of quality development in India

AbstractThis article addresses policy transfer in international development activities in vocational education and training. Ownership has been identified and established as a key factor for sustainability of transfer activities in different fields of development cooperation. While the concept has been targeted from a macro‐level perspective of government‐to‐government transfer for a long time, meso‐ and micro‐level perspectives of multi‐stakeholder involvement are increasingly emerging. Thus, the focus is on the function of ownership in terms of the role of local stakeholder commitment for sustainable transfer at the level of vocational training institutions in India. Using the example of the transfer of an approach for quality measurement, factors, potentials and challenges for ownership development are explored. Findings are based on the first evaluation cycle of a quality measurement framework developed with specific regard to Polytechnic Colleges and Industrial Training Institutes. Results of the evaluation were analysed considering the model intentions and theoretically based assumptions taken in the research process. Ownership at the meso‐level can be established by high degrees of acceptability of measures, participation of stakeholders at the institutional level and internal and external moderation processes in implementation. This paper argues that increased participation and decision‐making authority will contribute to measures in line with stakeholders' needs and enable Polytechnic Colleges and ITIs to engage in institutional development more effectively when considering stakeholders' views. This is the case, particularly when focusing on quality assurance and development at the organisational level.