Contemporary policy making is deeply influenced by the borrowing, transfer and diffusion of ideas and models from other countries, levels of government and supranational institutions. This is the first book to analyze comparatively the micro-dynamics of transfer across regions, contrasting policy fields, multiple levels of governance, and institutional actors. Grounded in original research by specialists in the field, it provides fresh and arresting insights into competition among transfer agents, resistances, local coalitions, translation, and policy learning. This empirical depth informs a reinvigorated and nuanced theoretical framework on global policy transfer processes.

A typical image of the making and administration of policy suggests that it takes place on an incremental basis, involving public servants, their ministers and, to a more limited extent, a variety of interest groups. Yet, much policy making is based on similar policy developed in other jurisdictions and in the major international organizations such as the WTO and the OECD. In other words, significant aspects of nationally developed policies are copied from elsewhere in what is described as a process of policy transfer and learning. Hence, studies of policy transfer have pointed to a distinct limitation in most existing theoretical and empirical explanations as to how policy is made and implemented through their neglect of the role of policy transfer and learning. Moreover, policy transfer is not only a concern of academics, but a growing concern for governments. The latter are concerned to improve the performance of their policy and several have placed a greater, more systematic focus on policy transfer as a means to increasing performance. This book presents a variety of cases from differing national and international contexts that enable a valuable, comparative analysis that is absent from most literature currently available and that suggest a number of exciting research directions with implications for policy making, transference and implementation in the future.

This book aims to make a theoretical, empirical and prescriptive contribution to the contemporary study of policy transfer. In the first regard, it observes that despite bold claims to the contrary (see Dolowitz and Marsh, 1996; and Evans, ed., 2010), most studies of policy transfer are characterised by their mono-cultural understanding of the process of policy-oriented learning reflected in an obsession with the destination of transfer rather than its original policy setting or settings. This betrays an absence of strong comparative investigation of the process of learning. Moreover, existing approaches to the study of policy transfer networks (the process of policy learning) are limited by their narrow epistemological perspectives as in the main they tend to lend undue focus on actors, ideas/interests or structure. Following the work of Marsh and Smith on policy networks (2000), this book contends that these elements cannot be separately analyzed. It therefore advances an interactive model of policy transfer networks that investigates the process of learning through three interactive dimensions: between structure and agents, network and context, and network and outcome. The book's second main contribution - the presentation of original case study explorations of the role of policy transfer in facilitating the rise of the Quasi-Competition State. The book contends that policy transfer has become a key policy instrument in the process of transition from a command to a market socialist economy, and latterly to what may be termed a Quasi-Competition State. Indeed, in order to meet the perceived imperatives of state transformation, the 'Reform and Open Door' policy has been featured by a broad range of processes of policy learning. It is, however, beyond the scope of this book to present a comprehensive description and explanation of this complex and multi-faceted reform process, rather the aim of this account is to provide an examination of certain processes of policy transfer which are broadly indicative of the dynamics of change underpinning the incremental process of reform. The third and final contribution of this book lies in its identification of the ingredients of rational policy transfer which can hopefully help guide future Chinese policy-makers to more progressive policy outcomes.

Governance, Globalization and Public Policy is concerned with exploring the nature of the policy arena in the context of globalization and the reconstitution of the state. The contributors to this book seek to broaden, extend and integrate theoretical, conceptual and substantive policy debates. The book begins by exploring the concepts and perspectives associated with globalization and governance, the relationship between them and the repercussions for public policy and the state. It also considers developments at the global and regional levels and the implications of the emergence of new regulatory regimes in the context of liberalization and privatization. The focus then turns to a broad range of substantive areas of public policy such as human rights, health and health care, housing markets, poverty, security and counter-terrorism. Together the chapters provide a thorough, integrated insight into the relationship between global processes, governance and public policy across a range of policy domains. Providing a comprehensive analysis of patterns and processes of governance in specific areas of public policy, this book will be of great interest to students undertaking programmes in social policy, social administration, public policy and political science, as well as researchers and academics concerned with the policymaking process.

This brand new text examines power and inequalities and how these are central to our understanding of how policies are made and implemented. It introduces the concepts and theoretical approaches that underpin the study of the policy process, reflects upon key developments and applies these the practice of policy formulation and implementation.

"PTCJ shines on empirical detail and an illuminating account of how policy transfer works in criminal justice. ...highly recommended for readers interested in understanding the current state of criminal justice policy." Political Studies Review "A very interesting book and excellent at setting the context of criminal justice policies in the UK. Thoroughly researched and written in an engaging style." Tina Eadie, Senior Lecturer, De Montfort University Since the late 1980s, it seems that policy-makers and politicians in the UK have increasingly looked West across the Atlantic for inspiration in the field of crime control. More broadly, recent years have seen a growing focus upon the extent to which, and ways in which, policy ideas and practices travel within and across national boundaries. Scholars from a number of disciplines have become increasingly interested in the concepts of ‘policy transfer’ and related ideas. This book contains the first major empirical study of policy transfer in the field of criminal justice and crime control. It focuses upon policy transfer from the USA to the UK, and undertakes a detailed examination of the processes of policy change in three key areas that have been widely perceived as imports from the USA: the privatization of corrections, ‘two’ and ‘three strikes’ sentencing, and ‘zero tolerance’ policing. Drawing upon a wealth of documentary evidence and interviews with leading politicians, policy makers and other key players in policy developments, the authors explore the complex processes involved in policy transfer and analyse the nature and degree of US influence in these areas.

This book examines the rise and agency of International Organizations (IOs) and their bureaucratic bodies— the International Public Administrations (IPAs)— as a reflection of an ongoing transfer of political authority and power from the domestic to the international level. It shows that IPAs represent actors per se, with autonomy and resources that allow them to exert an independent influence on global policy-making processes and outputs. Providing a combination of novel conceptual lenses and research design to capture IPAs as an empirical phenomenon, the book takes an open, theoretically and methodologically diverse approach to show that IPAs are far from being negligible actors in global public policy and must be taken seriously as actors in policy-making beyond the nation-state. This book will be of key interest to students, scholars, and practitioners in Public Policy and Public Administration, International Relations, International Political Economy, as well as Organizational Studies.

This book examines knowledge and policy transfer from the perspectives of Brazil and China. It assesses how these two nations have emerged as providers of ideas and models that contribute to the global offer of public policies. With a variety of case studies in areas such as health, food security and infrastructure, the volume offers new insights into the distinct levels through which knowledge and policy transfers take place, including the local, regional, national and supranational. It develops a multidimensional framework of analysis that considers the agents, objects, and mechanisms for knowledge and policy transfer, as well as the structures and timings within which they operate. Unlike previous studies on policy transfer – which largely focus on North-North and North-South learning processes – this book offers an innovative approach to this area of study. By reflecting on the experiences of these two rising powers, it provides fresh insights on the future of knowledge and policy transfer as global power dynamics shift. This interdisciplinary study will appeal to students and scholars of policy transfer, development studies, international relations and public policy.

The global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has made the annual Social Policy Review even more critical than before. This comprehensive volume addresses critical debates throughout the international social policy field over the past year with a key focus on responses to COVID-19 and implications for social policy. Expert contributors address important issues including foodbanks, caring for older family members, lockdowns around the globe, gender, technology and migration during a pandemic. Published in association with the Social Policy Association, this annual review is fundamental reading for students and academics in social policy, social welfare and related disciplines.

Environmental issues stretch across scales of geographic space and require action at multiple levels of jurisdiction, including the individual level, community level, national level, and global level. Much of the scholarly work surrounding new approaches to environmental governance tends to overlook the role of sub-national governments, but this study examines the potential of sub-national participation to make policy choices which are congruent with global strategies and national mandates. This book investigates the emerging actors and new channels of Japan’s environmental governance which has been taking shape within an increasingly globalized international system. By analysing this important new phenomenon, it sheds light on the changing nature of Japan’s environmental policy and politics, and shows how the links between global strategies, national mandates and local action serve as an influential factor in Japan’s changing structures of environmental governance. Further, it demonstrates that decision-making competencies are shared between actors operating at different levels and in new spheres of authority, resulting from collaboration between state and non-state actors. It highlights a number of the problems, challenges, and critiques of the actors in environmental governance, as well as raising new empirical and theoretical puzzles for the future study of governance over environmental and global issues. Finally, it concludes that changes in the tiers and new spheres of authority are leading the nation towards an environmentally stable future positioned within socio-economic and political constraints. Demonstrating that bridging policy gaps between local action, national policy and global strategies is potentially a way of reinventing environmental policy, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Environmental Studies, Environmental Politics and Japanese Politics.