This depends to a large extent on the degree of difference in the jurisdictions, but this can vary from legislative differences, labour laws, social and political values, institutional configurations, to cultural and religious values and differences in the political system as well as the degree of security issues in the country and the stability of the country.

I agree with Eugenie. Perhaps the three "I"s could be used as a starting point: Institutions (i.e. laws and regulations, but also conventions and norms), Interests (i.e. actors in place, their positions, their power relationships, their level of access to key decision-makers), and Ideas (i.e. think about current trends in the market for ideas that might differ from one country to the other). In fact, it's a very complex issue. Good idea to develop a method.

Mathieu offers a good starting point. I have done projects for a Canadian jurisdiction creating new orgs that are modelled on US, Australia and other similar jurisdictional precedents, and even in these cases many modifications had to be made on many of these levels. Comparing unlike systems requires a much more fundamental set of adjustments and modifications. There is some policy transfer literature that covers some of these things, but the starting point also has to be in determining the degree of similarity in the jurisdictions in order to map out the process.

Dear Colin and all,

I agree, policy transfer literature is a good starting point. My take away from this kind of literature is: Context matters. The functioning of a policy is determined by the legal, socio-economic, cultural, (eventually also the geographical-natural) context. Furthermore, the types of challenges to be addressed are also part of the context. This contextes can be analysed in the country of origin and compared with the country to which the transfer should take place.

We did a study on policies for sustainable development following this approach: it is available in German, however, in German only and can be retrivied from here: http://edocs.fu-berlin.de/docs/receive/FUDOCS_document_000000019360

A translation to English is under way.

Best

Klaus

Dear Klaus

Thank you for this. It will be most useful. It is precisely by transferring lessons learned in one subject to another than significant advances can be made in different fields of enquiry, and this is a classic example of this. I must admit that ResearchGate is a lovely example of a place where such exchange can occur and we can all make advances in our respective fields by learning from people working in other fields.

By the way I attach a little piece I wrote some years ago on the diverse and contested meanings of sustainable development and how the definition and approach adopted influences the policies pursued. You might find it useful.

Best wishes

Colin

Hello Colin: Kudos to Eugenie, Mathieu and Klaus, those are fine ideas. Let me add a few more.

I think there is a case to be made that a given state/country's current situation in terms of the overall "arc" of its political/social development also matters. I'd hypothesize that policy transfer is easier in earlier stages of political/social development. Japan, for example, was famous for its willingness to absorb policy ideas in the early years after the Meiji Restoration, even adopting much of the German constitution. Later in their "arc" countries are more at risk of developing the distributional coalitions (likely to oppose threatening policy innovations) that Mancur Olson emphasized in his Rise and Decline of Nations.

Another issue is resource availability...call it, "fiscal space." Even when institutional and cultural factors might seem favorable for adoption of an outside policy, it will likely face resistance unless it can be shown to generate substantially superior results. Conditional cash transfer programs, for example, have been adopted across Latin America in part because they have been very effective and relatively inexpensive relative to the alternatives.

One useful book I'm aware of that examines the transferability problem is Richard Rose's Learning from Comparative Public Policy.

Best wishes--

Larry

I too agree that this is becoming a most fruitful discussion identifying many of the factors that come into play, and also issues of developmental arc (my initial work in this area was looking at some policy transfer that took place between unlike systems of pre-Soviet Russia and Canada, but also many of the failed attempts after 1991 to instil western consulting practices in a context that did not have the societal and institutional infrastructure to allow for a successful transfer). I have been in the UAE now for almost 5 years working with many doctoral students in a large variety of public organizations in the country and have run up against issues around globalization and many of the concerns of post-colonial critics and questions raised by people like Edward Said. The problem I think that is most common here is expats (who are a very large percentage of the population and workforce) often bringing their organizational experience and practices in in unchanged and unmodified form. What this leads to in some organizations is a frequent restructuring as influences from several western nations are tried in sequence and many of which don't 'take' for a variety of reasons, but the most common underlying one is the assumption that a 'best' or good practice from a western country must necessarily work here (while often ignoring the fact that many of these are not even transferable between Western nations given the kinds of factors that have been discussed above). There are accompanying problems that Bourdieu would describe in the indigenous intellectual and social capital area that are marginalized often in favor of what are assumed to be more advanced or superior western imported structures. An additional avenue I am researching now is drawn from the Copenhagen, Aberystwyth and Paris schools of security studies focusing on societal and cultural security. Successful transfer that does not compromise or damage social, cultural, political and religious values in the UAE (and Gulf region) requires a considerable investment in relearning how a society can be structured, how its political system can be formed and function, etc., and most importantly understanding the Islamic intellectual tradition in this type of developing country. In areas I teach, like leadership studies, this means incorporating Islamic ethics, leadership traditions in the region, and important institutional experience from the Islamic administrative tradition into a broad-based international professional curriculum. This also sometimes means unlearning false assumptions, negative stereotypes and selective perceptions that one can unconscious absorb - and aiming for a more authentic understanding. It is not that much western knowledge that has been constructed is necessarily not suitable but it does require a knowledgeable handling of western literature to determine how the fit and coherence can be formed. One way I do this is to trace through the intellectual history of particular traditions that were strongly formed on the foundation of rich and extensive Islamic scholarship transmitted into the West that have a strong correspondence.

Sorry - I think I strayed off the path there, but I think these underlying aspects heavily inform the policy transfer process.

Unfortunately I worked very little in the healthcare sector in Canada so don't know what influences might have come from other jurisdictions, outside of perhaps neoliberal and New Public Management type influences that aim at rolling back the welfare state and the kind of universal medicare programmes that Canada has enjoyed.

These are important dimensions and to some degree it would be culturally dependent. And as Michael notes there is commonality on many levels in terms of underlying logic, although sometimes the rationale may be religious (e.g., that it is a work or moral principle involving proper treatment of others and not allowing oneself to be extreme in any manner - similar to Aristotle's golden mean - in the Qur'an and Sunnah), and sometimes the form of expression may be different. What I have found that works best, at least in the contexts I work in, is to assume underneath the differences in cultural expression a commonality and then find what is the culturally appropriate way of going about it. And Habermas I would agree is very important in legitimacy terms (thanks for that addition, as I think I have underplayed that in my work).

Regimes in the ME and Gulf especially vary considerably. There are features that distinguish the UAE - the rulers are close to their people, the leadership model is one that is close in some respects to the servant leadership model. In this country unlike the others a very high degree of the new wealth was distributed in the society and invested in infrastructure for their people. One feature of the national system of laws and policies I work with every day - the full rights women were granted under Islam (distinguishable from cultural and political norms - these need to be 'teased' out). Women drive, vote, travel, etc. The latest figures I have seen is that 78% of Emiratis doing graduate degrees are women. The majority of the Emirati doctoral students I supervise are Emirati women. They are doctors, lawyers, judges, ambassadors, pilots, police officers, military officers, government officials, etc. A number of my doctoral students are researching the rise of women professionally and in leadership positions. We can't determine where the glass ceiling is. And another part of the data, and something that I see on a regular basis, is that the fathers and brothers of Emirati women are often the strongest support in them pursuing their higher education and careers. Many of these women have a number of small children, a middle- to senior level position and are doing a doctorate and prepare for international conferences. Their husbands support them and the extended families support them in ways that would be very difficult in a nuclear family society. This country has done most of its development in the last few years, and to work in a country where women's rights and education were placed high on the initiating agenda and who receive this level of support without having to fight for it, as we have had to in most other countries, is a phenomenal experience. What I am trying to illustrate here is that the paths of countries in their development, while similar in some ways can also be radically different in ways that affect policy transfer. From the perspective of most Emirati women, the legitimacy level of their respect and regard for their rulers is extraordinarily high - but for good reason.

In terms of policy transfer in this country, many things are easily transferable if modified to fit the system, other things not so much and cause problems. But generally, at this point it requires a combination of structural functional considerations, critical considerations, and impact on sustainability of not just the government systems, environment, and a vast array of security concerns, but also in cultural and religious sustainability. There is a measure of 'unique path' to consider as well. I don't think that we are anywhere near the 'end of history' - but it isn't the development of western countries that is the only place where history in this sense is evolving, but in the Middle East and other regions where new types of societies are forming, and our models and theories to date can provide only partial analysis and understanding, and guidance. A place like the UAE in some ways is in uncharted territory and a natural experiment in creating what possibly could be a 'modern Islamic and Arab' state, although it isn't clear quite what that will be given the incredibly rapid rate of development and one with deep structural changes.

Dear Michael and others

I think we are getting closer to the answer. From what you say on how the state might show less interest in how people organise themselves and more interest in the fruits of that work (i.e., the money and therefore the tax inbcome), this gives me an idea. Perhaps different 'interest groups' will see the success of different policy initiatives using different criteria. For tax administrations, it is about whether the measure will produce more tax revenue. For legitimate businesses, it is whether it will reduce informal economy competitors and allow them to make more profit, etc. As such, the transferability of measures also needs measuring in terms of whether the goals of different interest groups are achieved.

Dear Colin,

I have been working on the issue for a while. I have just written a book trying to sum up the literature about lesson-drawing (Rose) and how to learn from second hand experience ( Bardach, Barzelay). I analyzed also the sociological approach (merton) about social mechanisms as key factor to successfully implement policy.

Hi Paola

You are just the person with the knowledge we all need. Can you give us more detail on your lessons learned and also some more detailed references about where we can find your work.

Best wishes

Colin

Dear Colin,

some years ago I started a challenging work about the rapid diffusion of policy innovations in different countries that have been characterized by a schizophrenic adoption of practices (“the factory of best practices) with governments utilizing those considered the ‘best’ as well as those deemed capable of actually providing solutions to policy problems. Nevertheless, the replication of policy innovations in different countries have been met with varying degrees of success.

The focal point of the study has been how to learn from the successes and failures of others in the field of public sector innovation. In my recent work (Evidence for public policy design – How to learn from best practices ed- Palgrave), I analyzed the adoption of the Standard Cost Model (a methodology to measure red tape and improve the quality of regulation ) in a number of European countries that provides an example of this due to it being met with success in some countries while failing inexplicably in others.

Focussing on policy transfer literature, classic studies on policy learning take interest in understanding the causal mechanism and, generally, the transfer of a policy from one country to another – which is what some call “lesson drawing” (Rose, 1991; 1993; 2004). Bardach (2008) and Barzelay (2009) tried to find a way to develop the concept of social mechanisms (Merton, Hedström and Swedberg, 1998) in order to understand the reasons of policy success.

Schneider and Ingram (1988) inquired the notion of “systematically pinching ideas” referring to the suggestion addressed to policy designers to adopt a more formal and rational selection process when policy ideas are transferred from other contexts, by comparing features of the different policy designs. I stressed and carefully inquired this point aiming at developing guidelines for policy analysts in order to evaluate the quality of best practices, to understand the reasons of success and to transfer innovations from a source case to a target case, presenting a final appraisal on how to design an effective policy.

I hope these inputs could be useful for you,

Best wishes,

Paola

Dear Colin

I am sure you are aware of the literature on policy transfer, which has quite some tradition. For example: Dolowitz, D. und D. Marsh (1996). Who learns what from whom: a review of the policy transfer literature. Political Studies XLIV: 343-357.

Equally interesting seem to be concepts of Europeanization: Knill, C. (2001). The Europeanisation of National Administrations. Patterns of Institutional Change and Persistence. Cambridge, University Press.

Or, lastly, translations of concepts such as analyzed using actor-network theory by Bruno Latour: Waldorff, S. B. (2013). Accounting for organizational innovations: Mobilizing institutional logics in transition. Scandinavian Journal of Management in press.

They all stress out that local conditions (and politics) create a need to translate generalized concepts to assure local compatibility.

Dear Colin:

What a great question and one that underlies a lot of the discussion on international cooperation now, particularly South-South. There is quite a bit on the need for horizontality or mutual learning and other considerations - not a lot that is consolidated overall. One paper I found very useful for a paper I was writing on social technologies is this one: Chatterjee, P. (1990). The transferability of social technology: Explorations in the knowledge Structures of the Helping Professions and Their Transfer. Lewiston, N.Y., USA: Edwin Mellen Press which we used in this paper: https://www.academia.edu/4082120/Social_Technologies_for_Sustainable_Development_Valuing_Social_Capital .

Though he was speaking about social technologies, policies and policy good practice I think falls into this category particularly if for development.

He notes specifically:

- any transfer of social technology must take into account and reconcile issues

of adaptability and replicability.

- the transferability of social technology from one context to another is easy and complete when there is similarity between the two.

From the paper itself, some of the things to consider is which of these best fit the type of policy you are considering:

- social technologies that are based on imitation of successful projects, since they come pre-equipped with the necessary parts of an operational social system: norms, values, attitudes, tables of organisation, division of labour, status ladders, roles and role models, measures of input and output, performance criteria, legal rights and obligations and built-in appropriate incentives. Models that have been widely imitated have survived a long-term process of selection that eliminates ineffective

or unstable design;

• social technologies that are based on relevant findings of social research: any proposed programme should bereviewed to determine whether the intended effects

seem credible in the light of what is known about human behaviour in general and the activitiesand relationships particular to that system; and

• social technologies that follow an operational sequence rather than a single act: starting with goals that are clearly specified, feedback mechanisms for continuous

monitoring, mid-course corrections and a commitment to trial and error.

Hope this may help in some way.

For those of you who answered this question, I am very grateful. We eventually wrote a report on the issues involved in assessing the cross-national transferability of policy measures (in the sphere of tackling undeclared work). I think that it has wider lessons for other policy realms. I attach it and I hope that you find it useful.

Once again, thank you to everybody who has been so helpful in enabling us to answer this question.

Technical Report Assessing the cross-national transferability of policy measu...

Dear Colleagues

Thank you to everybody who contributed to answering this question on evaluating the cross-national transferability of policy measures. We have now produced a journal article in addition to the above report.  Please find it attached. I hope that you find this useful if yo are conducting similar work in the future.

Colin

This was one of the more interesting and informative discussions I have followed on ResearchGate! Thank you contributors!