Policy transfer: the case of European Union–China cooperation in public administration reform

Abstract

This article addresses the Chinese government’s accelerated process of administrative reform and focuses on the decade-long effort by China to develop transfer policies with selected European nations. Providing more efficient public services and building a broad policy capacity in the face of growing internal and external challenges have prompted the Chinese government’s active engagement in this policy-oriented learning and capacity transfer. New systems of governance through international cooperation programs have been explored, and new initiatives have been adopted. This article presents a case study of the China–Europe Public Administration program, which has served as a rich source of information for government department reform in China. The China–Europe Public Administration program is a policy hub that provides various examples of policy transfer regarding public management from the European Union to China. This article expands the voluntary policy transfer network model as a heuristic approach for understanding the administration reform process, especially regarding personnel sector development in China, and suggests that policy transfer is a rational analytical framework for studying progressive administrative reform in transitional states. In addition, it is observed that policy hubs, like the China–Europe Public Administration program, have become key tools for the internationalization of neoliberal public sector reforms. In doing so, this article contributes to the burgeoning policy transfer literature, which has previously paid little attention to the situation in China.

Un-Dutching the Delta Approach: network management and policy translation for effective policy transfer

“…Finally, it is worth mentioning that network management needs to be continued beyond adoption. Several authors previously established that policy transfer does not end when policy proposals are formally adopted or agreed upon (Zhang & Yu, 2019), and respondents in both cases reported barriers related to implementation. The promotion and ambiguity of the DDA allowed it to become a 'coalition magnet' (Béland & Cox, 2016) but also impeded consensus on the way forward.…”

“…One advantage of this approach is that it reduces variance in the dependent (effective transfer) and independent variable (network management) because the other factors that affect transfer are different between the cases. Although policy transfer studies initially concentrated on Western countries, Zhang and Yu (2019) underscored that policy transfer is a suitable analytical framework to study administrative reforms in transition countries such as Bangladesh and Vietnam.…”

Cabaran Kerajaan Menguruskan Pesara dan Pelabur Antarabangsa: Cadangan Penambahbaikan Dasar dalam Program Malaysia Rumah Keduaku

“…Kesimpulannya, kerangka ini telah diguna pakai sebagai rujukan oleh pelbagai negara untuk pelbagai bidang seperti pentadbiran awam di China (Zhang & Yu, 2019), dasar jenayah di Scotland (Graham & Robertson, 2021), dasar warga emas di Korea (Woo & Choi, 2020) dan dasar imigresen di Kanada (Bertram et al, 2019).…”

The institutionalization and effectiveness of transnational policy transfer: The China–Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park as a case study

“…The existing studies tend to focus on policy transfer in the Global North (e.g., Campell & Hall, 2017), or within a self-contained structure with a shared past such as the Commonwealth and in the postcommunist transitional economies (Laking & Norman, 2007;Randma-Liiv & Kruusenberg, 2012), or from the Global North to the Global South (e.g., Zhang & Yu, 2021), with little reference to policy transfer within the Global South or among non-Western nations.…”