Emerging Work on Tertiary Policy Diffusion in Western Europe and North America

Abstract

Employing a neo-institutionalist lens derived from the work of John Meyer and his colleagues, we examine in this chapter (1) the extent to which the three preceding chapters show consistent spread of rationalist policies across governmental borders, (2) the role of intermediary factors in policy diffusion, and (3) the ways “filters” at borders shape whether and how fully individual polities embrace policies already adopted elsewhere. We assay apparent differences across settings and provide some concluding comments on critical implications. Notably, we endorse moving away from earlier quantitative work’s dominant focus on only the adoption/non-adoption decision rather than the full timeline of diffusion processes, and we stress the benefits of working toward greater consensus and consistency regarding both the conceptual and empirical definitions of policy diffusion, emulation, transfer, learning, and related ideas.