Understanding the transfer of policy failure : bricolage, experimentalism and translation

This article re-assesses some of the literature on policy transfer and policy diffusion in light of ideas as to what constitutes failure, partial failure or limited success. First, the article looks at imperfect, incomplete or uninformed transfer processes as one locus of policy failures. Second, it addresses the concept of ‘negative lesson-drawing’ as well as the role of interlocutors who complicate policy transfer processes between A and B. Third, the idea of ‘transfer’ as a neat linear transmission of an intact policy approach or tool is criticised by drawing attention to the extensiveness of hybridity, synthesis, adaptation and ‘localisation’. Finally, the article concludes that policy ‘translation’ is a better conceptual framework for comprehending and valorising the learning and policy innovations that come with the trial and error inherent in policy-making. This entails an abandonment of perceptions of one-way linear processes of country ‘A’ sending policy to ‘B’ that characterises many policy transfer approaches to a stronger analytical focus on importing countries that translate policies

Intractable policy failure: the case of bovine TB and badgers

The failure to eliminate bovine TB from the English and Welsh cattle herd represents a long-term intractable policy failure. Cattle-to-cattle transmission of the disease has been underemphasised in the debate compared with transmission from badgers despite a contested evidence base. Archival evidence shows that mythical constructions of the badger have shaped the policy debate. Relevant evidence was incomplete and contested; alternative framings of the policy problem were polarised and difficult to reconcile; and this rendered normal techniques of stakeholder management through co-option and mediation of little assistance

BEPS Policy Failure—The Case of EU Country-By-Country Reporting1

The tax gap between taxes that are “actually” paid and taxes that “ought” to have been paid by multinational corporate entities has become an area of huge public policy concern in the recent decades. This study reviews the impact of new legislation to reveal the tax gap created by the EU banks and financial institutions passed in 2013 and in particular of the quality of the resulting country-by-country reporting (CBCR) requirement for banks. Although resulting tax gap estimates are noted, they suffer due to significant problems in the published data; much of it is due to the quality of the regulation requiring its publication and implementation. The findings reveal a lack of understanding of the technical and structural weaknesses of accounting in a transnational context in the design of this regulation. CBCR is destined to fail in achieving its regulatory objectives in this context unless necessary reform of the regulation is undertaken

The political economy of energy access: Survey evidence from India on state intervention and public opinion

In India, where energy access is limited, how does the public react to the government's inability to provide citizens with basic energy services, such as electricity and clean cooking fuel? We answer this question using a survey conducted in two rural villages of Uttar Pradesh. First, we examine the association between a respondent's opinion on state intervention and policy failure. Specifically, we focus on whether people who believe in state intervention are likely to have lower levels of satisfaction with the government's energy access policies. Second, we examine the link between policy failure and the likelihood that people consider a political candidate's energy views in voting. We find that people's preference for government intervention has a negative effect on satisfaction levels with government policies, and that people who blame the government for policy failures are less likely to take a political candidate's energy policies into account when voting

Bilingual Education Success, but Policy Failure

In 1977, a bilingual education project began in rural areas of Puno, Peru, as a direct result of Peru\u27s 1972 Education Reform. This paper presents results of an ethnographic and sociolinguistic study comparing Quechua language use and maintenance between: 1) a bilingual education school and community, and 2) a nonbilingual education school and community. Classroom observation indicated a significant change in teacher–pupil language use and an improvement in pupil participation in the bilingual education school. Community observation and interviews indicated that community members both valued and used their language. Yet the project has had difficulties expanding or even maintaining its implementation

What the fall of Afghanistan can teach us about the need for informed and effective policymaking

The collapse of the Afghan government this summer and the resurgence of the Taliban have been widely regarded as a policy failure following two decades of US involvement in the country. Joseph Stull and Sarah Young look at the lessons from US policy failure in Afghanistan, arguing that policymakers must do more to evaluate policies as they implemented, speed up the policymaking process, spend more time listening to those affected by their policies, and think more closely about policies’ potential outcomes

The Seville-Bonanza Canal: A public policy failure

During the sixties, the idea of building a canal to promote the economic development of Seville through the river gained momentum. The initiative –already started in 1953– sought to create an industrial conurbation between the Andalusian capital and Sanlúcar de Barrameda. It was supported by various industrial and commercial sectors of Seville, as well as by local political-administrative institutions. The initiative was also fostered by the Chief of State, general Franco. However, that project actually failed. ¿How such a strong public policy could have been thwarted despite of the support of the dictatorial regime? Some of the veto-players against the project are highlighted in this paper: the lack of support from other Andalusian provinces, the bureaucratic slowness, and the change of ministers in the Spanish government during the sixtiesDurante los años sesenta cobró fuerza la idea de construir un canal para impulsar el desarrollo económico de Sevilla a través del río. La iniciativa – ya iniciada en 1953- perseguía conformar una especie de conurbación industrial entre la capital andaluza y Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Fue apoyada por diversos sectores industriales y comerciales hispalenses, así como por las instituciones político-administrativas locales. También fue apoyada por el J efe del Estado, el general Franco. Sin embargo, aquella iniciativa fracasó. ¿Cómo fue posible que una política pública con tantos respaldos -incluido el apoyo del propio régimen dictatorial- no se materializara? En este trabajo se apuntan varios factores que fueron determinantes en elveto al proyecto: la falta de apoyos de otras provincias andaluzas, la lenta burocracia y los cambios ministeriales que se produjeron en los años sesenta

Decades of Climate Policy Failure in Canada: Can we Break The Vicious Cycle?

This paper explores the causes of 20 years of climate policy failure in Canada

Fuel subsidies versus market power : is there a countervailing second-best optimum?

Fuel subsidies distort end-use prices below cost, resulting in overconsumption and huge environmental cost. On the other hand, the mark-up over cost due to the exercise of market power results in the social loss of consumer surplus. We open a new line of inquiry into the potential for a market-based solution from these two countervailing forces: can the two offsetting distortions conceivably achieve a second- best optimum? Relying on dynamic panel techniques and gasoline market data for 68 developing countries, we uncover an excessive second-best subsidy offset to market power mark-up on the order of 4.5. Our results indicate that the potential for policy failure strongly exceeds the potential for market failure in our model, and gasoline prices across our sample may not be aligned with vigorous anti-climate change policy