Policies That ‘Dont Fit’: Words of Caution on Adopting Overseas Solutions to American Problems*

Muniak, Dennis C.

doi:10.1111/j.1541-0072.1985.tb00200.x

Cited by 37 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Specifying the mechanics of a programme guards against selective perception, with policymakers emulating the easy parts of a programme, and omitting the hard parts needed to make it effective (Muniak, 1985). Since lesson-drawing is about generalizing, it would be distracting or even counterproductive to prepare a full-scale study, for ideographic details of foreign practice can distract attention from essentials, and confuse what is generic and potentially transferrable with what is specific to time and place.…”

Section: Drawing a Lessonmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since lesson-drawing is about generalizing, it would be distracting or even counterproductive to prepare a full-scale study, for ideographic details of foreign practice can distract attention from essentials, and confuse what is generic and potentially transferrable with what is specific to time and place. Specifying the mechanics of a programme guards against selective perception, with policymakers emulating the easy parts of a programme, and omitting the hard parts needed to make it effective (Muniak, 1985).…”

Section: Drawing a Lessonmentioning

confidence: 99%

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What is Lesson-Drawing?

1991

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Lesson-drawing addresses the question: Under what circumstances andto what extent can a programme that is effective in one place transfer to another. Searching for fresh knowledge is not normal; the second section describes the stimulus to search as dissatisfaction with the status quo. Lessons can be sought by searching across time and/or across space; the choice depends upon a subjective definition of proximity, epistemic communities linking experts together, functional interdependence between governments, and the authority of intergovernmental institutions. The process of lesson-drawing starts with scanning programmes in effect elsewhere, and ends with the prospective evaluation of what would happen if a programme already in effect elsewhere were transferred here in future. Lesson-drwaing is part of a contested political process; there is no assurance that a lesson drawn will be both desirable and practical. The conclusion considers the uncertainty and instability of judgements about the practicality and desirability of transferring programmes.The real world in fact is perhaps the most fertile of all sources of good research questions calling for basic scientific inquiry. Herbert A. Simon, Nobel laureate lecture

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Section: Drawing a Lessonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Drawing a Lessonmentioning

confidence: 99%

What is Lesson-Drawing?

1991

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“…349-350) identify a list of "objects of transfer": policy goals, structure, and content; policy instruments or administrative techniques; institutions; ideology; ideas, attitudes, and concepts; and negative lessons. Elaborating on the notion of "policy" transferred, Muniak (1985) notes that several borrowings by the USA from the United Kingdom have failed because they omitted accompanying provisions in a system of policies that initially existed in the UK.…”

Section: Types Of Knowledge Skill or Other Features Of Analysis Tramentioning

confidence: 97%

Cross‐national perspectives for aiding policy choice

MacRae

1998

Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice

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“…amounted to nothing less than a foreign limb grafted onto a somewhat gangrenous body" (p. 463). And Muniak (1985) found that when U.S. actors borrowed four kinds of policy designs from Great Britain, differences between unitary and federal systems caused grave disruptions.…”

Section: Wade Jacoby Brigham Young Universitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Imitation-innovation Trade-off

Jacoby

2001

Comparative Political Studies

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This article examines the proposition that there is a trade-off between imitation and innovation when state elites try to “borrow” institutional designs from other polities. After synthesizing theoretical propositions both for and against a trade-off, the article develops evidence from case studies of two periods in which such institutional borrowing was widely practiced: the post-World War II American occupation of Germany and German reunification after 1989. It concludes that imitation sparked innovation in both periods, although for two very different reasons. The article emphasizes the relation of the research findings to theories of institutional creation and change.

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Policies That ‘Dont Fit’: Words of Caution on Adopting Overseas Solutions to American Problems*

Cited by 37 publications

References 6 publications

What is Lesson-Drawing?

What is Lesson-Drawing?

Cross‐national perspectives for aiding policy choice

The Imitation-innovation Trade-off

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