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Policy Diffusion and Directionality: Tracing Early Adoption of Offshore Wind Policy
Author(s) -
Motta Michael J.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
review of policy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1541-1338
pISSN - 1541-132X
DOI - 10.1111/ropr.12281
Subject(s) - argument (complex analysis) , policy analysis , diffusion , political science , offshore wind power , policy learning , foreign policy , policy making , regional science , public economics , economics , public administration , sociology , wind power , politics , computer science , engineering , law , biochemistry , chemistry , physics , machine learning , electrical engineering , thermodynamics
Policy makers frequently learn from the policy experiences of other governments. Lessons inform decision making, diffusing policy across borders. Using interviews with key policy actors and a comparative analysis of United States and European policy contexts, this study identifies and describes causal mechanisms through which newly emerging offshore wind energy policies diffused across governmental borders. In so doing, this article demonstrates a new approach to understanding policy learning and diffusion to complement the large‐N, quantitative analyses that form the bedrock of the literature. The findings support the argument that future studies must account for policy diffusion between subnational and foreign national governments, as well as diffusion between coequal administrative agencies in different policy subsystems—“directions” of diffusion that are invisible to traditional methods, yet likely to become increasingly common in the face of climate change and other wicked problems.