Paper Example on Transfer Element in Successful Policies

Introduction

The ability of policymaker to successfully transfer policy concepts of another country follows the country's interests, the problem at hand and past experiences. According to Rose (1991, p.3), policy transfer takes place when regions, governments, nations, and cities share a common problem. However, issues identical to a particular country is unique hence does not facilitate policy transfer efforts. Rose view such matters as abnormal. It is an active role of policymakers to ensure solutions to policy problems are given. Dolowitz and Marsh suggest that such policy solutions can be found from borrowing foreign policy remedies (Dolowitz and Marsh 2000, p.9). Adoption of policies from abroad to fix the current policy problem in a political system follows actions such as direct coercive transfer, policy convergence, external inducement, policy harmonization, policy diffusion, lesson drawing, policy emulation and band-wagoning. The focus of this paper will be determining successful ways of policy transfer using relevant practical examples.

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Voluntary and Coercive Policy Transfer

During policy transfer, policymakers learn from the lessons of other countries to correct their current problem in the political system. Lesson drawing is a voluntary action that ensures best lessons are drawn. Contrary to lesson drawing, coercion involves the use of government executive powers directly or indirectly to push for policy reforms (Dolowitz and Marsh 1998, p.344). Policy learning takes place when all effort of policy transfer considers voluntary rationale more than coercion rationale. Dolowitz advocates for policy learning through improving the capacity to understand policy concepts and their application rather than imposing the ideas on the nation, city or political system. It is the role of the policymakers such as politicians, pressure groups, and governments to ensure adequate learning takes place before completing policy transfer process. Problems of policy transfer might arise once the policies to be borrowed are complicated. For example, if the policy addresses a solution to a single issue, then the policy is simple to adopt but in circumstances where the policy addresses more than one problem and gives varying outcomes possesses a challenge on policy transfer. More so, when the policies do not converge with the existing laws of the land, political ideology, language, and past policies prevents borrowing of policies.

Policies fail to serve the purpose they were meant for once there is lack of support from relevant policy actors such as the government, NGOs, and politicians. Other factors that can contribute to policy failure include the poor socio-economic status of a country, lack of specific and general policy objective, and lack of proper problem definition (Dolowitz 2009, p.9). For instance, pressure from international bodies for a country to conform to new standards without prior knowledge to learn about the emerging policies contribute to uninformed transfer. Furthermore, nations that belong to the same geographical region have a high tendency to adapt to similar policies since they share a common culture and political ideologies. However, country closeness does not guarantee enough policy learning (Dolowitz, 2009: 328). Malaysia is recently known for its rapid reforms in the management of public changes. However, Siddique assessment of these reforms shows an aspect of incomplete transfer. It is, therefore, necessary to consider the continuous evaluation of policies to ensure they serve their intended purpose. Stone raises a significant concern regarding the acquisition of policy knowledge and policy practice. Stone believes that having sufficient knowledge about policy does not lead to its practice (Stone, 2004: 549). By creating transnational convergence groups such as NGOs, consultants and think-tanks necessitate policy transfer in a more fashioned way. The international groups act as stewards in bringing policy changes without the use of force (Stone, 2004: 561).

Policy emulation is another different mechanism of policy transfer different from policy learning and coercion. According to Maggetti and Gilardi, policy emulation takes place when policymakers respond to changes in their policy environment (2013, p.4). Coercion and drawing lessons use the rationale from policy outcomes and the past or current experiences. Emulation on the other hand uses the policy appropriateness rationale. In this case, relevant policy solutions are arrived at by policy actors to address specific problem. Emulation is not as efficient as drawing lessons from other policies since it does not weigh the consequences of particular policies. The emulated policies lack an international acceptance because they are convenient and applicable in a specific context, political system or organization but such policies enjoy the majority of public approval (Messeguer 2005, p.79). According to Holzinger and Knil, emulation of policies is a duplication of another country's policies without evaluating the repercussion of such policy in solving a given problem (2007, p.4). In most circumstances, such policies play a little role in turning around an ailing situation. A country might decide to adopt policies of another country because it is regarded as a superpower. Copying policies form a high-status nation with a mentality of solving a different crisis without proper assessment leads to incomplete policy transfer. Taking issues for granted also can lead to policy emulation. For example, women political rights are overlooked around the globe. As a result policies regarding citizenship are being implemented to overcome the problem of women participation in politics (Braun et al. 2007, p.43). Legitimate female involvement in governance is a significant concern for policymakers to ensure appraisal of women status and conform to what is called modernity in politics.

Policy makers avoid criticisms by emulating policies that converge with the social, economic, technological and political normative spheres. Braun and other scholars laid argument against the establishment of the central bank as a move by governments to align other commercial banks to uniform policy regulation other than control inflation (2007, p.44). Besides reasons for policy emulation, competition also acts as a mechanism of policy transfer. In this case, a country might want to maintain a competitive advantage by reacting to foreign policies. Competition might arise as a result of an economic, social and technological tussle among nation (Holzinger and Knil 2007, p.92). For instance, a country might decide to raise standards of imports to reduce cases of importing low-quality products. Political competition shapes the leadership of a nation to have an international outlook so that it can influence the leadership of other countries regarding global policy formulation and adoption. Ability to influence other countries on an international platform reduces the costs of coercion to adopt an international norm. Besides political competition, social completion results in better policy transfers that maintain a good relationship between countries.

Policies are formed within the precepts of social, cultural and economic predispositions. The policy makers such as the government have the ultimate goal of ensuring policies favor their political systems, social and economic ideologies. Therefore considering adoption, a policy maker has to consider the belief system of the country. Since political systems differ from one country to another, policy transfer requires feasible assessment of the originality of the entire policy model before making proper adoption decisions. According to Mossberger and Wolman, it is a challenging task for policymakers to ensure knowledge and practice about a policy is sufficient (2003, p.437). It is a challenging assignment because different countries have different policy environments, cultural practices, and policy interaction.

For example, in Brazil, foreign policies are influenced by interrelationship in the south and cooperation of different political systems. Additionally, civil societies and other international networks actively engage in policy implementation method (Leite, Suyama and Pomeroy 2013, p.4). Bolsa Escola is an excellent example of policy transfer known as Conditional-Cash-Transfer project (CCT). In 1995, the program was launched as a motivation for parents to ensure that 85% school attendance is achieved in two cities. Parents were given money as a token of appreciation and a motivation to encourage school attendance. Later the policy program spread to 88 cities of Brazil, and in 2001, the program was launched as a national priority. It is a policy transfer that took place within the nation. The whole country drew lessons from the previous 88 cities and decided to make it a national policy since 85% school attendance was achieved. CCT spread to other South American states such as Mexico through the transnational convergence where international organizations such as the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank worked as consulting groups to ensure successful CCT transfer. CCT did not take place as coercion from international bodies but instead through consultancy and social integration between Mexico and Brazil. Besides the consultancy effort by the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank, knowledge institutions and policy experts like Missao Crianca ensured that CCT is successfully diffused into Mexico and Ecuador.

Another good example voluntary policy transfer is the Chilean Program de Mejoramiento de la Gestion (PMG). PMG program was established to serve the purpose of effective performance management. The program was introduced back in 1998 by the Chilean government. The World Bank and OECD report positively reviewed the PMG system as that which fulfills international standards and stakeholders needs in 2005 (Dussauge-Laguna 2013, p.170). Following the appealing results on the implementation of PMG program as well as the fulfillment of the statutory obligation, the Mexican government was impressed and decided to borrow the same knowledge in 2006. Mexico learned about the policy during the OECD meetings of 2003 and 2004. Furthermore, the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank organized a joint conference regarding the issue in Washington. Officials such as Carlos Hurtado from the department of finance were able to pay a visit to Chile, exchanged contacts and gained the first experience about the system (Dussauge-Laguna, p.174). Policy transfer of PMG into the Mexican public system failed as a consequence of a disagreement between the Ministry of Public Administration and the Ministry of Finance. The ministry of Finance held a view of retaining the originality of Chilean PMG program to enable proper cost management while the Ministry of Public Administration decided to introduce new regulations on preventing corruption and modernization of public administration. PMG case illustrates policy adoption through knowledge acquisition and the understanding of policy consequences of adoption. Although learning took place, policy practice did take place as in the case of Chile. Looking at this case, it is essential to recognize that proximity of nations does not guarantee successful transfer of policies even after intensive learning activities.

According to Caroll and Common, successful transfer requires scrutiny of all elements of policy model so that it can serve the nation's interests (2013, p.188). Avoiding other aspects of policy model jeopardizes the whole exercise of policy transfer. For example, the Ministry of Public Administration in Mexico decided to modify the PMG program by leaving out valu...