Cross-National Policy Diffusion in States and Provinces

Abstract

Cross-national policy sharing between legislatures of states in different countries is not well studied, possibly due to the existence of many domestic peer states whose laws provide the most frequently studied examples of cross-state borrowing. But in addition to these domestic examples, instances of cross-national policy transfer continue to arise. The theories that explain state-level policy diffusion among actors in the same country have not yet been extended to instances of cross-national policy proliferation. Therefore, this phenomenon of cross-national sub-national policy diffusion continues to play a role in legislative outcomes yet remains largely unexplained. This dissertation builds on the policy diffusion literature to investigate why cross-national learning occurs and under what conditions is it expected. It theorizes that legislators are motivated to study policies from states in other countries when lawmakers in those foreign states produce novel or innovative policies, or when legislators choose to undertake more thorough research to improve a policy that is not performing well at home. It further theorizes that state-level institutions and attributes associated with legislative professionalism affect capacity to research policy in states in other countries and synthesize best practices into new legislation in the home state. Hypotheses are tested using network analysis, generalized linear mixed models, and text analysis. Results suggest that many states of varying levels of professionalism and economic size are included in cross-national policy networks and that the state-level attributes of legislative professionalism, particularly staff levels, are important to providing the capacity to research foreign policies. However, these attributes are negatively associated with levels of textual similarity between the foreign policy originator and the domestic policy borrower. This indicates that professionalism attributes enable state policymakers to collect more best practices to synthesize into final policy documents and laws. Text analysis detects a reduced but meaningful level of textual similarity between the text of foreign policy originators and subsequent domestic borrowers, as compared to the level of policy similarity detected between two states in the same country. These findings propose answers to why legislators might opt to learn from states in other countries in addition to peers at home and provide insight into the conditions under which cross-national sub-national policy diffusion is more likely to occur. Examples of cross-national policy diffusion such as public bike sharing programs and primary seatbelt legislation suggest that many policies that lawmakers borrow from across international borders provide quantifiable benefits to the jurisdictions that adopt them. As public servants in states and provinces around the world continue to tackle similar policy issues, networks that foster the sharing of best practices have the potential to enhance cross-national learning and improve citizen quality of life more rapidly than when sub-national policymakers work in isolation.