Economic Growth and Development Policy by Panagiotis E. Petrakis & Dionysis G. Valsamis & Kyriaki I. Kafka

Author:Panagiotis E. Petrakis & Dionysis G. Valsamis & Kyriaki I. Kafka
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030431815
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

5.3 Politics, Diffusion and Punctuated Equilibrium

According to the theory of policy diffusion, new policies are “transferred” from one government to another or from one economy to another (Shipan & Volden, 2008). Thus, the political, administrative and institutional dimensions that apply to a particular place at a given time are used for development policies and regulatory reforms in another geographical area at another time.

Shipan and Volden (2008), examining the mechanisms of policy diffusion, examined different types of anti-smoking policies applied to 675 US cities between 1975 and 2000, ultimately identifying four mechanisms by which this process takes place. These mechanisms are learning, economic competition, imitation and coercion.

By observing the implementation of one policy elsewhere, policy-makers can learn from the experiences of other governments. According to Berry and Baybeck (2005), “when faced with a problem, policy makers simplify the need to find a solution by choosing an alternative that has proven successful elsewhere”. Thus, Shipan and Volden (2008) define their first hypothesis as follows: The likelihood of a city adopting a policy increases when the same policy has been widely adopted by other cities throughout the state.

The second mechanism is economic competition, which can lead to dispersal of policies from one place to another. This mechanism, together with the preceding one, is the dominant one in the process of policy diffusion. Shipan and Volden (2008) argue that the likelihood of a city adopting a policy decreases when it experiences negative economic impacts by the implementation of policies in nearby cities and increases when such effects are positive.

The third mechanism—imitation—refers to the ability of one government to duplicate the actions of another. The nature of imitation can be perceived by contrast to learning. As part of the learning process, policy-makers focus on the policy implemented elsewhere, in terms of effectiveness and outcomes of its implementation. Instead, imitation focuses on the need to duplicate a policy implemented by another government—what did that government do, and how can we apply it to make it look the same? The crucial distinction is that learning focuses on action (i.e. on the policy adopted by another government), while imitation focuses on the actor (i.e. on the other government that implemented this policy).

Finally, coercion refers to the process of mandatory policy enforcement. This mechanism is different from the other three which are voluntary. For example, countries have the ability to coerce one another directly through trade practices and financial sanctions and indirectly through pressure on international organizations such as the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund.

A rather different perception of policy change formation is that described by the punctuated equilibrium model (Baumgartner & Jones, 1991). This model describes a situation in which one idea of political change competes with others until one of them prevails. This process is triggered by an important external political event that is capable of disrupting existing balances. Then, the dispersal of different policies of change will not cease until one prevails over the others and a new balance is formed, which in turn will be subject to future change.

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