IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/bjposi/v35y2005i01p103-126_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Policy Transfer in the European Union: An Institutionalist Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • BULMER, SIMON
  • PADGETT, STEPHEN

Abstract

Although the concept of policy transfer attracts growing attention in political science, its application to the European Union remains underdeveloped. This article offers a comprehensive conceptual account of EU policy transfer. It starts from the institutionalist premise that transfer processes and outcomes will vary between differently constituted governance regimes. Three forms of EU governance are identified; hierarchy, negotiation and ‘facilitated unilateralism’. The article develops hypotheses about the linkages between institutional variables and transfer outcomes, assessed on a scale from emulation to influence. Hypotheses are set against empirical evidence drawn from a variety of policy areas. We find evidence to support the general hypothesis that stronger forms of policy transfer occur in more highly institutionalized governance regimes. The evidence also points to micro-institutional variables shaping transfer outcomes: the powers accruing to supra-national institutions; decision rules; and the density of exchange between national actors.

Suggested Citation

  • Bulmer, Simon & Padgett, Stephen, 2005. "Policy Transfer in the European Union: An Institutionalist Perspective," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(1), pages 103-126, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:bjposi:v:35:y:2005:i:01:p:103-126_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0007123405000050/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ida Andersson & Ian R Cook, 2019. "Conferences, award ceremonies and the showcasing of ‘best practice’: A case study of the annual European Week of Regions and Cities in Brussels," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 37(8), pages 1361-1379, December.
    2. Citi, Manuele & Rhodes, Martin, 2007. "New Modes of Governance in the EU: Common Objectives versus National Preferences," European Governance Papers (EUROGOV) 1, CONNEX and EUROGOV networks.
    3. Giliberto Capano & Andrea Lippi, 2017. "How policy instruments are chosen: patterns of decision makers’ choices," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 50(2), pages 269-293, June.
    4. Arbolino, Roberta & Carlucci, Fabio & Cirà, Andrea & De Simone, Luisa & Ioppolo, Giuseppe & Yigitcanlar, Tan, 2018. "Factors affecting transport privatization: An empirical analysis of the EU," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 149-160.
    5. Luis Sanz-Menendez & Laura Cruz-Castro, 2005. "Critical Surveys Edited by Stephen Roper," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(7), pages 939-954.
    6. Roman Senninger & Daniel Bischof, 2018. "Working in unison: Political parties and policy issue transfer in the multilevel space," European Union Politics, , vol. 19(1), pages 140-162, March.
    7. Jakob T. Pruess, 2023. "Unraveling the complexity of extended producer responsibility policy mix design, implementation, and transfer dynamics in the European Union," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(6), pages 1500-1520, December.
    8. Radtke, Jörg & Scherhaufer, Patrick, 2022. "A social science perspective on conflicts in the energy transition: An introduction to the special issue," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    9. Canitez, Fatih, 2020. "Transferring sustainable urban mobility policies: An institutional perspective," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 1-12.
    10. Stefan Werland, 2020. "Diffusing Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning in the EU," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-16, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:bjposi:v:35:y:2005:i:01:p:103-126_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/jps .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.