"We nicked stuff from all over the place”: policy transfer or muddling through?

TY - JOUR

T1 - "We nicked stuff from all over the place”

T2 - policy transfer or muddling through?

AU - Dwyer, Peter James

AU - Ellison, Nicholas R

PY - 2009/7

Y1 - 2009/7

N2 - This article explores current thinking about policy learning and transfer, using recent work on the ‘Americanisation’ of UK active labour market policies as a focus of discussion. While it is clear that the UK has learned from the US in certain respects, academic debates about the US–UK policy relationship are marked by accounts of learning and transfer that depend on a highly rational interpretation of these processes. The article reviews current debates in the policy transfer literature and applies a critical view of policy learning and transfer to key accounts of labour market activation policies before moving on to consider how useful the concept of policy transfer really is in an increasingly complex, plural and ‘de-institutionalising’ world.

AB - This article explores current thinking about policy learning and transfer, using recent work on the ‘Americanisation’ of UK active labour market policies as a focus of discussion. While it is clear that the UK has learned from the US in certain respects, academic debates about the US–UK policy relationship are marked by accounts of learning and transfer that depend on a highly rational interpretation of these processes. The article reviews current debates in the policy transfer literature and applies a critical view of policy learning and transfer to key accounts of labour market activation policies before moving on to consider how useful the concept of policy transfer really is in an increasingly complex, plural and ‘de-institutionalising’ world.

U2 - 10.1332/030557309X435862

DO - 10.1332/030557309X435862

M3 - Article

SN - 0305-5736

VL - 37

SP - 389

EP - 407

JO - Policy and Politics

JF - Policy and Politics

IS - 3

ER -