Policy Innovation Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Policy innovation refers to a political system’s adoption of a policy that is different from past policy actions. Although other jurisdictions may have already initiated similar measures, policy innovation occurs when a government enacts a policy that is new to that particular governmental unit. This definition derives from the ideas of some of the first social scientists to examine this topic, such as Lawrence Mohr, Jack Walker, and Everett Rogers, and it continues to encompass key elements of contemporary research on policy innovation.

A number of models explain why policy innovation occurs. In many of these frameworks, the causes or stimulants of policy innovation are divided into two categories: internal characteristics and external pressures. Internal determinants are factors within a governmental jurisdiction that stimulate innovative activity. These incorporate political characteristics such as executive leadership, bureaucratic professionalization, citizen ideology, governmental structure, and partisan competition, as well as socioeconomic factors, which can include financial resources, physical capacity, and the demographic characteristics of the population.

Policy innovation can also occur because of external factors that originate from outside of a political system. These external determinants often deal with the actions of other governmental units, either within the same political system or in other political systems. Some scholars contend that external factors help to simplify policy making, allowing decision makers in one political system to copy or emulate the actions of others; other scholars believe that external determinants create a competitive environment in which comparable governmental units compete against each other to adopt certain policies quickly; still others think that the process works “horizontally” with governmental jurisdictions at higher (or lower) levels exerting influence on others within the same political structure.

Much of the political science research on policy innovation focuses on the adoption and spread of public policies within the United States. Although the findings of this research vary somewhat from study to study, there are some consistent results. States are more likely to innovate if they are in good fiscal health, if they have professional bureaucracies and legislative systems, and if they possess the political will to do so. External determinants are also quite important. However, scholars present different conclusions about which external stimulants are most relevant and how they operate across different policy areas. Some scholars believe that regional factors are most important (i.e., the proximity of neighboring states that have already adopted a policy), while others identify the influence of the national government on state-level behavior. Still others focus on channels of communication that exist between state-level actors as the key determinants of subsequent policy adoptions.

Policy innovation is also examined using different conceptualizations of the process (i.e., interactions between governmental jurisdictions within the same political system) and within different political systems outside of the United States. This research indicates that national-level actions can spur innovativeness at the state and local levels. Similarly, subnational actions can propel national governments to pursue new policy initiatives. Also, the policy innovations of one nation can stimulate other nations to adopt similar policies.

Many unanswered questions remain about the process of policy innovation. Part of this is because scholars use different approaches and methodologies, focus on different types of variables, look at different policy areas (e.g., welfare, health care, energy, environmental regulation, and taxation), and focus on different aspects of the process (i.e., the initial adoption of a policy, the sequence of subsequent adoptions, or the spread of adoptions). As a result, it is difficult to synthesize this research, derive generalizations across policy areas and political systems, and present clear explanations about the process of policy innovation.

There are still many aspects of the process that require further study. How should one measure and analyze policy innovation? Should one look at aggregate-level factors of a political system or individual-level attributes of decision makers within a governmental jurisdiction? Should a researcher incorporate both internal and external determinants within the same analysis? Does policy innovation work the same way across political systems as it does within a given political system? Does policy innovation vary across program areas? Does policy innovation operate differently at different points in time? What impact will contemporary pressures, constraints, and problems (i.e., globalization, economic recessions, internal domestic conflicts, international tensions, etc.) have on the propensity of governmental systems to innovate?

Bibliography:

Berry, Frances Stokes, and William D. Berry. “State Lottery Adoptions as Policy Innovations: An Event History Analysis.” American Political Science Review 84, no. 2 (1990): 395–415.
Collier, David, and Richard Messick. “Prerequisites versus Diffusion: Testing Alternative Methods of Social Security Adoption.” American Political Science Review 69, no. 4 (1975): 1299–1315.
Gray,Virginia. “Innovation in the States: A Diffusion Study.” American Political Science Review 67, no. 4 (1973): 1174–1185.
Mohr, Lawrence B. “Determinants of Innovation in Organizations.” American Political Science Review 63, no. 1 (1969): 111–126.
Rogers, Everett M. Diffusion of Innovations. 4th ed. New York: Free Press, 1995.
Walker, Jack L. “The Diffusion of Innovations among the American States.” American Political Science Review 63, no. 3 (1969): 880–899.
Weidner, Helmut. National Environmental Policies: A Comparative Study of Capacity-building. Berlin: Springer, 1997.

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