Next Stop Stockholm? The Role of Ideas in Shaping French Prostitution Policy Since 2002
Year: 2012
Type: preprint
Abstract: In April 2011 the French information mission on prostitution called for the implementation of a policy of client criminalization inspired by the 1998 Swedish law. However, despite presenting a “Swedish model” of prostitution policy as a new and desirable alternative, the same policy actors had in fact made a previous unsuccessful attempt to bring about client criminalization almost a decade earlier in which they had criticized the Swedish version of this law. In light of this, traditional approaches to policy diffusion predicated on the inherent worthiness of ideas and norms cannot adequately account for such a strategic repackaging of a previously rejected idea. Therefore, drawing from the diverse literature on policy change, policy learning and diffusion, this paper deploys an ideational approach to account for the reemergence of a debate over client criminalization in France. This paper argues that domestic actors seeking to remove the constraints on reform posed by path dependency and uncertainty can strategically use knowledge and ideas gleaned from abroad, and the reference to successful foreign models, in a bid to generate credibility and legitimacy for their preferred ideas. In particular, evidence from the comparison of the two policy proposals suggests that during windows of opportunity offered by the collapse of a current policy, such ideas can serve as the basis for a new ideational consensus around which to consolidate a policy coalition.
Source: SSRN Electronic Journal
Author: Emily St Denny
Language: English
Topic: Policy Transfer and Learning
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1877819660