Suchergebnisse

The process starts with scanning programmes in effect elsewhere, and ends with the prospective evaluation of what would happen if a programme already in effect elsewhere were transferred here in future. Lesson drawing is part of a contested political process; there is no assurance that a lesson drawn will be both desirable and practical. (Abstract amended)

ABSTRACTLesson-drawing addresses the question: Under what circumstances and to what extent can a programme that is effective in one place transfer to another. Searching for fresh knowledge is not normal; the second section describes the stimulus to search as dissatisfaction with the status quo. Lessons can be sought by searching across time and/or across space; the choice depends upon a subjective definition of proximity, epistemic communities linking experts together, functional interdependence between governments, and the authority of intergovernmental institutions. The process of lesson-drawing starts with scanning programmes in effect elsewhere, and ends with the prospective evaluation of what would happen if a programme already in effect elsewhere were transferred here in future. Lesson-drwaing is part of a contested political process; there is no assurance that a lesson drawn will be both desirable and practical. The conclusion considers the uncertainty and instability of judgements about the practicality and desirability of transferring programmes.

Following a definition of lesson-drawing as instrumental & action-oriented, examined in turn are motivations behind searching for lessons, the typical areas in which lessons are sought, & the mechanisms of lesson-drawing. The search for lessons is prompted by a dissatisfaction with the current situation rather than an attempt to emulate another successful program. Lessons may be drawn by copying, emulation, hybridization, synthesis, or inspiration. The effectiveness of lesson-drawing's transferability from one context to another is examined, starting with an overview of effective programs currently in use, & extrapolating with an evaluation of their application in GB. By searching for lessons from history or close to home, the public policy writer needs to subjectively define proximity, identify the epistemic communities that link experts, & indicate the amount of intergovernmental institutional authority. The viability of program transference will rely in part on uncertain & unstable judgments, not unlike those found when implementing policy proposals. 1 Table, 1 Figure, 53 References. Adapted from the source document.

Policy lessons from abroad often are put forward as politically neutral truths. Beneath this superficial impartiality, political adversaries just as often are using such lessons as political weapons. The political value of these lessons lies in their power to bias policy choice and to affect the coalition supporting a particular program. (SJK)

The normative element in lesson-drawing results from conflicting political goals. Evidence from programs in effect in other places can be the persuasive material for fueling partisan debates, often with adversaries taking the same evidence as illustration of their particular viewpoints. The values, practicalities, & transferability of contested policies are the substance of these debates. Political actors advocating change are motivated to use lessons to help set agendas, though lessons can also provide counterexamples to support the position of opponents to change. A case example of political conflict in lesson-drawing is found in the 1988 debate in the US Congress on prenotifying the public of mandatory plant closings. An illustration of the hypotheses that (1) polities are not willing to combine conflicting agenda (conservative & liberal), despite the combination's theoretical possibility, & (2) politico-economic feasibility of a program determines whether a set of polities will adopt a particular policy, is provided in a discussion of labor market/income maintenance policies in the US. 1 Table, 1 Figure, 79 References. Adapted from the source document.

ABSTRACTPolitical adversaries have reason and opportunity to use foreign lessons to gain advantage in political conflicts. Political factors strongly affect the way public policy lessons are drawn and transformed into public policy. Political opponents contest the value, practicality, and transferability of policy initiatives in order to bias the outcome. The paper hypothesizes that (i) the politicization of lesson-drawing induces issue experts to emphasize the descriptive and technical aspects of programs; (2) gives an incentive to advocates of change to use lessons to advance their position during the agenda-setting process; and (3) gives opponents of change an incentive to draw counterbalancing negative lessons from foreign experience when a proposed lesson reaches the point where adoption is entirely possible. The 1988 Congressional debate over mandatory plant closing prenotification provides evidence supporting hypotheses. The paper further hypothesizes: (4) most polities will not adopt both conservative and liberal programs even when theoretically they could do so; and (5) the degree to which a population of polities adopt a particular lesson will be a function of the program's economic and politicial feasibility. The diffusion of labor market and income maintenance policies across the American states supports both of these claims.

Undertaking cross-national research in order to improve national policy is an idea that goes back centuries. Aristotle examined the constitutions of city-states for the sake of civic betterment. The American Founding Fathers studied the English Constitution to avoid its presumed defects. In turn, Tocqueville examined democracy in America because, as he explained to his French readers, 'My wish has been to find there instruction by which we may ourselves profit' (1954 ed.: vol. 1, 14). In the contemporary world, policymakers in every society constantly cite the lessons that they draw from their own past or from the experience of other nations – and in Eastern Europe and the Third World there are many governments anxious to learn from the practice of others how to improve their own policies.

Countries can and sometimes do copy the institutions and practices of other countries in order to address problems and issues that they have in common with them. The office of directly elected mayor has become an increasingly common feature of local government throughout the developed democracies, spreading from its largely American origins to a range of European states. This paper develops a matrix for the analysis of elected mayors in different countries using as its horizontal axis the formal, informal and individual attributes of elected mayors and, on the vertical axis, their governmental, governance and allegiance roles. The matrix is then applied to analyse studies of elected mayors in four countries: the United States, England, Germany and Greece, in an attempt to derive comparative lessons applicable to the countries included in the analysis, as well as to countries considering or in the process of developing directly elected executive mayors. The issues examined include improving the internal co‐ordination of local authorities' departments, the need for network management in increasingly fragmented or 'hollowed out' local government systems and the ways in which mayors attempt to secure their political survival and that of the offices they hold, by securing and retaining the allegiance of voters and stakeholders. It also explores the benefits and dangers of concentrating much formal power and informal influence in a single pair of hands. Its conclusions are offered both to demonstrate ways in which comparative studies of political institutions can be developed and in the hope that they may be of use to mayors and those concerned with the development and reform of local government and governance.

The important role that climate leaders and leadership play at different levels of the European Union (EU) multilevel governance system is exemplified. Initially, climate leader states set the pace with ambitious policy measures that were adopted largely on an ad hoc basis. Since the mid-1980s, the EU has developed a multilevel climate governance system that has facilitated leadership and lesson-drawing at all governance levels including the local level. The EU has become a global climate policy leader by example although it had been set up as a 'leaderless Europe'. The resulting 'leadership without leader' paradox cannot be sufficiently explained merely by reference to top-level EU climate policies. Local level climate innovations and lesson-drawing have increasingly been encouraged by the EU's multilevel climate governance system which has become more polycentric. The recognition of economic co-benefits of climate policy measures has helped to further the EU's climate leadership role.

AbstractThe need to understand the scope for comparative lesson‐drawing on national‐level climate mitigation policy has acquired added significance due to the current impasse in international‐level governance. Greater policy learning or lesson‐drawing among peers at the national level could, to an extent, foster meaningful developments by overcoming generalised international apathy and inaction. In this respect, we analyse the features of one significant example of national climate policy in order to examine the scope for lesson‐drawing, thereby setting out a normative research agenda. The UK Climate Change Act 2008 remains one of the few examples of legally enshrined national mitigation legislation and hence provides a relevant, but surprisingly under‐researched, source of learning for policy‐makers worldwide. By analysing its development, critical features and implementation, this article shows that—despite criticism of the sustainability and implementation effectiveness of the Act—some aspects of the policy could provide lessons for other states, and hence are potentially transferable extraterritorially, although lesson‐drawing itself is conditional on contextual constraints.