Transplanting ideas in policy networks: Reinventing local government and the case of steel action

The crisis in local government has made it susceptible to the well known principles of Reinventing Government, particularly ideas about partnership and government as catalyst. It is important however, to understand the conditions under which new ideas, such as reinventing local government, can be successfully transplanted into existing policy networks. Hence the article examines the contrasting fortunes of the local authority single issue group Steel Action in the domestic and EU arenas. It concludes that governance as ‘steering’ is perhaps best seen in terms of the dynamics of a learning process with a high degree of uncertainty.