Understanding the Concept of Policy Transfer: A Systematic Literature Review Approach

Abstract

Policy transfer is not a new concept in public policy or political science research. However, there are many misconceptions about policy transfer from past scholars which fragmented policy understanding among political scientists and researchers. Hence, this paper aims to shed light on the basic concept of policy transfer and add value to the current literature especially in an academic context. This paper employed secondary data from the past ten years (2010-2020) derived from selected published resources of reputable databases specifically Scopus and ScienceDirect. There are four main stages in Systematic Literature Review (SLR) namely; (1) Pre-SLR, (2) Identification, (3) Screening, and (4) Eligibility. After considering the relevant articles from prior searching activities, 15 articles were reviewed systematically. Accordingly, five themes emerged to conclude the concept of policy transfer based on thematic analysis. This paper concludes with a summary of policy transfer discussion for future research and implications for policymakers were presented.

Identifying Trends of Policy Transfer Practices in Indonesia: A Systematic Literature Review (2012 - 2022)

“…In short, the researcher searches both databases simultaneously for all relevant keywords related to the research topic. Based on previous systematic review studies, the keywords used can come from thesaurus, variant, related terms, expert opinion, or keywords from previous literature (Mokhtar & Rahman, 2020) (Moher et al, 2009) (Bramer et al, 2017); (Shaffril et al, 2019). The keywords used in this study are: "Policy Transfer".…”

“…For more than 30 years, publications on policy transfer have emerged from the establishment of the concept of policy transfer to applications of policy transfer worldwide (Zhang & Yu, 2021) (Dolowitz, 2017); (Rose, 1991). Many researchers discuss the use of policy transfers from a modern perspective which does not only concentrate on the government but also in terms of private sector practices carried out by many countries in various fields (Mokhtar & Rahman, 2020). (Evans, 2017) revealed that the concept of policy transfer actually existed since the beginning of the Christian era.…”