Policy transfer: coming of age and learning from the experience

Abstract

Policy transfer research has been something of a growth industry, reflected in the fact that Google Scholar identifies 17 articles on the subject with more than 100 citations. Of course, as an earlier issue of Policy Studies indicated, the concept and its use have not gone unquestioned. However, the contributors to this volume, for the most part, argue that the study of policy transfer has matured significantly over the last two decades. In order to substantiate this point, we engage here with the article by McCann and Ward which begins this volume. It is an excellent and important example of such a critique, but, in our view, they are a trifle unfair about what they see as the 'mainstream', political science approach to the study of policy transfer. As such, we briefly outline McCann and Ward's critique, before considering the later articles in this collection which indicate how these critiques have been, and are being, addressed in the mainstream policy transfer literature. Subsequently, we briefly consider the ontological and epistemological positions which underpin the differences between the approaches of McCann and Ward and the mainstream literature.