The Diffusion of Differences: The Role of Blocking Coalitions in Policy Diffusion
Year: 2010
Type: preprint
Abstract: When agents whose activities stretch across unit boundaries are able to play a role in influencing debates among policymakers within each unit, debates will unfold according to a different path than would have occurred in a world in which each debate was kept separate. The literature has hitherto entirely understood the role that pro-innovation policy entrepreneurs have played in shaping policy diffusion. Like bees distributing pollen among flowers, policy entrepreneurs are able to spread policy ideas from one state capital to another. Yet it is clear that advocates are not the only group of trans-unit actors with an agenda of their own. The inherently linked nature of units who are subject to the possibility of policy diffusion makes the generation of contrary pressure inevitable. Such pressures will be made manifest as blocking coalitions that mobilize across-unit and within-unit interest groups to block or re-shape policy innovations.
Source: SSRN Electronic Journal
Author: Paul Musgrave
Institution: Georgetown University
Language: English
Topic: Policy Transfer and Learning
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2277169902