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13 Governance: An Int'l J. Pol'y, Admin, & Institutions 1 (2000)

handle is hein.journals/gvnanlj13 and id is 1 raw text is: Introduction DAVID P. DOLOWITZ This collection of articles is a contribution to the developing literature surrounding the concept of policy transfer. While the process of policy transfer is not new, it is increasingly drawing the attention of scholars across a wide range of academic disciplines. For example, Hada (1959) clearly illustrates the interaction between voluntary and coercive ele- ments (this distinction is explored below, p. 3) in the spread of ideas, policies and programs across Europe and the Middle East during the Hellenistic period. Similarly, Waltman (1980) shows how the develop- ment of the American income tax system during the Civil War was shaped by policy transfer from Europe. While policy transfer has existed as long as organized government, part of the rise in academic interest in policy transfer over the past two decades springs from the increasing occurrence of the phenomenon. Over the past two decades, as global forces increasingly impact on individual states and as technological advances have made it easier and faster for policy-makers to communicate with each other, the occurrences of policy transfer have increased. A few examples drawn almost at random from the areas of public policy, political development and democratization are illustrative. In the field of public policy the transfer of welfare policies and pro- grams from the United States to Britain presents an excellent example. Indeed, Dolowitz (1997, 1998) shows how much of the Conservatives' welfare-to-work program was transferred from the U.S., often with little change. What is more, these programs have subsequently been trans- ferred from Britain to Denmark and may be adopted by a number of other European Union governments. In the field of political development, conditionality results in policy transfer. So, as a condition of approving a loan, the International Mone- tary Fund often requires that a recipient country pursue particular eco- nomic policies. Since the early 1980s these have been broadly neo-liberal economic prescriptions, involving cuts in public expenditure and the increased use of the market. Finally, in the democratization field the case of constitution-building offers another excellent example of policy transfer, again with a number of iterations. So, for example, the Spanish constitution, particularly the sec- tions dealing with the roles of the prime minister, the legislature and the Governance: An International Journal of Policy and Administration, Vol. 13, No. 1, January 2000 (pp. 1-4). @ 2000 Blackwell Publishers, 350 Main St., Malden MA 02148, USA, and 108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JF, UK. ISSN 0952-1895