LIST OF PANELS

The purpose the Panel is to widen and deepen the debate on international circulation of policy models. Policy transfer is a fast-growing field of research in public policy analysis. The international flow of ideas and instruments is intensifying and becoming more rapid (PECK, 2011). The globalization of NPM (PAL, 2009), the diffusion European Union instruments (HALPERN; GALÈS; BART, 2011; SAURUGGER; SUREL, 2006), and the flow of social policies such as food purchase and conditional cash transfers (MORAIS DE SÁ E SILVA, 2017; OSORIO GONNET, 2018), are examples of the range of topics being explored.

The literature has developed rapidly, and is already settling around some conventional assumptions and findings. For example, most work focuses on two possible objects of study: the process itself and its results (DOLOWITZ; MARSH, 2000). There is also general agreement that there are four predominant mechanisms in the diffusion of policies: learning, competition, coercion, and socialization (GRAHAM; SHIPAN; VOLDEN, 2013; SIMMONS; DOBBIN; GARRETT, 2008). Other emergent findings are that politicians learn from other systems and emulate their policies (RICHARD ROSE, 1991), governments compete among themselves to promote the interests of their parties or obtain financial resources, policies are institutionally imposed by means of legal devices that encourage adoption, and communities of experts influence the implementation of public management models.

As important as it has been, this work has tended to focus on western liberal-democratic regimes (EU and OECD countries), on North-South or North-North transfers, on a conventional roster of agents and actors, and on fairly conventional power dynamics. If we shift the focus to Southern countries, pay attention to different actors, and view power and translation through a wider lens, we can potentially capture a great deal more about the full range of policy transfer phenomena (PORTO DE OLIVEIRA; PAL, 2018).

Southern countries emerged on the policy transfer environment, and they bring new power relations and directions to the field. Power relations can take shape in different forms, from policy imposition to distinct degrees of resistance and bargaining, while adopting a policy. The rise of some Southern governments as policy innovators has not only enhanced South-South transfers, but has also produced new experts in new policy fields, bringing them on to the “global policy market”. Unconventional agents have appeared on the transfer stage, such as foundations, consultants, policy advisory groups and firms. And while transfers have been increasing, it is misleading to see this as a “monocropping process” or convergence. The reality is that different types of translations are necessary in order to adapt policy instruments to meet local context, in terms of political culture, institutions and state capacity.

The two previous panels at the Milan and Singapore ICPP Conferences made highly successful contributions to policy transfer research, yielding two edited volumes (HADJIISKY; PAL, WALKER, 2017, and WALKER; BAKER, forthcoming 2020). This panel is another step towards the advance of new frontiers of research on the area.

REFERENCES

DEZALAY, Y.; GARTH, B. G. La mondialisation des guerres de palais: La restructuration du pouvoir d’État en Amérique Latine, entre noblesse du droit et “chicago boys”. Saint-Amand-Montrond: Éditions du Seuil, 2002.

DOLOWITZ, David P.; MARSH, D. Learning from Abroad: The Role of Policy Transfer in Contemporary Policy Making. Governance, v. 13, n. 1, p. 5–24, 2000.

GRAHAM, E. R.; SHIPAN, C. R.; VOLDEN, C. The Diffusion of Policy Diffusion Research in Political Science. British Journal of Political Science, v. 43, n. 03, p. 673–701, 2013.

HADJIISKY, M.; PAL, L. A.; WALKER, C. Public Policy Transfer: Micro-Dynamics and Macro-Effects. [s.l.] Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017.

HALPERN, C.; GALÈS, P. L.; BART, J.-Y. No autonomous public policy without ad hoc instruments, Abstract. Revue française de science politique, v. Vol. 61, n. 1, p. 51–78, 17 fev. 2011.

HASSENTEUFEL, P. De la comparaison internationale à la comparaison transnationale: Les déplacements de la construction d’objets comparatifs en matière de politiques publiques. Revue française de science politique, v. 55, n. 1, p. 113, 2005.

MORAIS DE SÁ E SILVA, M. Poverty Reduction, Education, and the Global Diffusion of Conditional Cash Transfers. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017.

OLIVEIRA, O. P. DE; PAL, L. A. NEW FRONTIERS AND DIRECTIONS IN POLICY TRANSFER, DIFFUSION AND CIRCULATION RESEARCH: AGENTS, SPACES, RESISTANCE, AND TRANSLATIONS. Revista de Administração Pública, v. 52, n. 2, p. 199–220, abr. 2018.

OSORIO GONNET, C. A Comparative Analysis of the Adoption of Conditional Cash Transfers Programs in Latin America. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, p. 1–17, 23 jul. 2018.

PAL, L. A. The OECD and Global Public Management Reform. p. 33, 2009.

PECK, J. Geographies of policy: From transfer-diffusion to mobility-mutation. Progress in Human Geography, v. 35, n. 6, p. 773–797, dez. 2011.

PORTO DE OLIVEIRA, O. International Policy Diffusion and Participatory Budgeting: Ambassadors of Participation, International Organizations and Transnational Networks. [s.l.] Palgrave Mcmillan, 2017.

RICHARD ROSE. What Is Lesson-Drawing? Journal of Public Policy, v. 11, n. 1, p. 3–20, 1991.

SAURUGGER, S.; SUREL, Y. L’européanisation comme processus de transfert de politique publique. Revue internationale de politique comparée, v. 13, n. 2, p. 179, 2006.

SIMMONS, B.; DOBBIN, F.; GARRETT, G. The Global Diffusion of Markets and Democracy. [s.l.] Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

STONE, D. Think Tanks, Global Lesson-Drawing and Networking Social Policy Ideas. Global Social Policy: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Public Policy and Social Development, v. 1, n. 3, p. 338–360, dez. 2001.

WALKER, C., BAKER, T., eds., (forthcoming, 2020). Public Policy Transfer: Actors and Arenas [Working title], Palgrave Macmillan

WOODS, N. The Globalizers: The IMF, the World Bank, and Their Borrowers. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006.

Policy transfer is a fast-growing field of research in public policy analysis. The literature has developed rapidly, and is already settling around some conventional assumptions and findings. As important as it has been, this work has tended to focus on western liberal-democratic regimes (EU and OECD countries), on North-South or North-North transfers, on a conventional roster of agents and actors, and on fairly conventional power dynamics. If we shift the focus to Southern countries, pay attention to different actors, and view power and translation through a wider lens, we can potentially capture a great deal more about the full range of policy transfer phenomena.

There is still much to understand about power relations, unconventional agents, transfer directions and translations, In fact, not only have Southern countries emerged on the policy transfer environment, but they brought new power relations and directions to the field. Power relations can take different forms, from policy imposition to distinct degrees of resistance and bargaining, while adopting a policy. The rise of some Southern governments as policy innovators (Mexico for CCTs, Brazil for food security, Bogotá for BRT and Porto Alegre for Participatory Budgeting), not only enhanced South-South transfers, but also produced new experts in these areas, and brought them on to the “global policy market”. Unconventional agents have appeared on the transfer stage, such as foundations, consultants, policy advisory groups and firms

This panel invites papers that contribute to our understanding of unconventional actors, flows, power dynamics and translations. We particularly welcome papers on policy transfer in and from the global South; on a different range of non-governmental actors (e.g., foundations, research institutions, co-ops, trade unions, social movements, etc.); and ones that take existing modalities of transfer (e.g., translation) in new directions. We invite innovation in theory, in methods, and in case analysis