Trusting relationships, learning bureaucrats: International organizations and early-stage policy diffusion

Abstract

This article examines the diffusion of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) model to Turkey and Indonesia, and the role of World Bank bureaucrats in these cases of early-stage diffusion. The article finds that learning, and not coercion or emulation, is the primary mechanism of policy diffusion in both cases. This learning was mediated by the World Bank bureaucrats even before the CCT model gained mainstream acceptance inside the World Bank. The findings from these two cases suggest World Bank bureaucrats to be engaging in domestic policy processes not by ‘powering’ but by participating in the national bureaucrats’ ‘puzzling’. The findings also underline the importance of trusting relationships between international and national bureaucrats in these policy processes. More broadly, the article makes the case for conceptualizing international organizations (IOs) as organizations with heterogeneous staff who play more nuanced and contingent roles in policy diffusion processes than is commonly conceived.