Learning from abroad: The role of policy transfer in contemporary policy-making

In recent years there has been a growing body of literature within politica l science and international studies that directly and indirectly uses, disc usses and analyzes the processes involved in lesson-drawing, policy converg ence, policy diffusion and policy transfer. While the terminology and focus often vary, all of these studies are concerned with a similar process in w hich knowledge about policies, administrative arrangements, institutions an d ideas in one political setting (past or present) is used in the developme nt of policies, administrative arrangements, institutions and ideas in anot her political setting. Given that this is a growing phenomenon, it is something that anyone studyi ng public policy needs to consider. As such, this article is divided into f our major sections. The first section briefly considers the extent of, and reasons for, the growth of policy transfer. The second section then outline s a framework for the analysis of transfer. From here a third section prese nts a continuum for distinguishing between different types of policy transf er. Finally, the last section addresses the relationship between policy tra nsfer and policy "failure.".