AMBIGUITY IN POLICY LESSONS: THE AGENCIFICATION EXPERIENCE

Donald P. Moynihan

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Policy Transfer and Learning Public Policy and Administration Research Management and Organizational Studies

Abstract

The policy transfer literature identifies the importance of context in shaping policy selection. However, countries with distinctly different contexts are pursuing the agencification of the public sector. Why? The solution to this puzzle lies in the ambiguity associated with public management ideas, which allows policy adopters room to interpret management doctrines and experience. The result is that public management ideas that carry the same identifying label can mask variation in the understanding of the policy, the motivation for adoption and in implementation outcomes. The process of interpretation allows policy‐makers in different contexts to: (1) adopt superficially similar policy concepts; (2) overlook negative experiential learning that contradicts the policy doctrine; and (3) adopt policies unsuitable to the national context.

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References

1983The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields 1991A PUBLIC MANAGEMENT FOR ALL SEASONS?1972A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice 2000Learning from Abroad: The Role of Policy Transfer in Contemporary Policy‐Making 2004Public Management Reform 1993Lesson-drawing in Public Policy: A Guide to Learning Across Time and Space 1998Institutional Design in Post-Communist Societies 2003Public Management Reform

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