Policy transfer across governance systems: an adapted approach

ABSTRACT

This paper identifies the impact governance types can have on the transfer of city-scale climate change policy. We develop a new adaptation of the policy transfer heuristic (based on the work of Dolowitz and Marsh 1996) which draws attention to different types of multilevel governance systems (Hooghe et al. 2003). This new adaption, “Policy Transfer Across Governance Systems” (PTAGS) heuristic helps to anticipate challenges and opportunities for potential transfer (Manwaring 2016). To demonstrate this, we present three hypothetical scenarios of policy transfer from the European Union Green Capital Awards (EUGCA) to Australia. Using PTAGS reveals three main complexities that policy actors’ may face when developing city-scale climate change policy. These are: problem identification; the type of transfer networks used; and what aspects of policy contents and goals can be transferred. We argue that the adapted PTAGS heuristic enables a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics of transfer across different governance systems. This can better equip policy actors and relevant stakeholders to develop more holistic city-scale climate change adaptation policy that draws on the strengths of governance systems rather than amplifying their weaknesses.

KEYWORDS:

• Policy transfer
• metropolitan governance
• climate change
• green politics
• multilevel governance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The cities initially involved were Helsinki, Riga, Vilnius, Berlin, Warsaw, Madrid, Ljubljana, Prague, Vienna, Kiel, Kotka, Dartford, Tartu, and Glasgow.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Australian Government Research Training Scholarship.

Notes on contributors

Anna Hulicka

Anna Hulicka is a PhD Candidate at the Institute of Geography and Spatial Management at the University of Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland. Her research focuses on environmental policy, sustainable development and urban management.

Patrick Lucas

Patrick Lucas is a PhD candidate at the University of New South Wales, Canberra. His research focuses on social ecological systems, natural resource management, and biodiversity conservation.

Lisa Carson

Lisa Carson is a Research Fellow at the Public Service Research Group at UNSW Canberra. Her research focuses on ways to bring about social change with a focus on better connecting theory and practice and translating policy into practice at local, national and international levels.