Modeling Policy Diffusion Across Local Bureaucracies (Pre-Recorded)

• In Event: Local Government Agencies

Abstract

A key aspect of globalization, extending significantly beyond flows of goods, money, information, and persons, is the diffusion of policies across countries, firms, and, importantly, cities. Over the past three decades, intricate and multi-component policies such as "quality of life policing," waste management policies, and enterprise zones have been adopted by numerous cities. In some cases, this adoption has been almost clone-like -- cities have implemented others' policies down to the finest detail -- whereas in other cases, implementation has been much more partial. To explore this policy diffusion asymmetry, this paper investigates the role of local institutions in facilitating or hindering implementation. My argument is that different implementation trajectories are due to the confluence of (1) policy-specific factors--namely the degree to which policies are designed as tightly connected wholes, made of interdependent sub-components--and, (2) adopting units’ characteristics--namely the degree of synergy between preexisting and newly implemented organizational routines. Applying the model to the policing case mentioned above, the paper sheds light on the various contingencies of organizational change in local bureaucracies. Finally, far from discarding previous findings in international relations on the diffusion of social and economic policies, this project aims to show how existing theories apply differently for different innovations and for different organizational contexts.

Author

• Laura Schenker, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies