Introduction: Cross-national policy convergence: concepts, approaches and explanatory factors

Abstract

Although there is an increasing number of studies on policy convergence (in recent years especially in the context of Europeanization and globalization research), we still have a rather limited understanding of this phenomenon. This deficit can be not only traced back to a lack of empirical findings, but is also the result of the heterogeneous and partially inconsistent theoretical literature on policy convergence. Although policy convergence constitutes a central concept in comparative public policy, it is not always consistently used and mixed up with related but not equivalent concepts. It is thus a basic objective of this paper to clarify the analytical relationship between policy convergence and related concepts used in the literature. Moreover, different approaches for the assessment and measurement of policy convergence will be presented. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of causes of policy convergence.

Keywords:

• Europeanization
• policy convergence
• policy diffusion
• policy transfer
• public policy

Acknowledgements

This article is based on the research project ‘Environmental governance in Europe: the impact of international institutions and trade on policy convergence (ENVIPOLCON)’. The support of the EU is gratefully acknowledged. For very helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper I am grateful to Bas Arts, Katharina Holzinger, Andy Jordan, David Levi-Faur, Duncan Liefferink and Jeremy Richardson.

Notes

1 In the terminology used by Busch and Jörgens (2005), the mechanisms summarized under transnational communication would be referred to as policy diffusion.

2 For alternative but basically compatible classifications see, for instance, Bennett (1991) or Dolowitz and Marsh (2000).