A typical image of the making and administration of policy suggests that it takes place on an incremental basis, involving public servants, their ministers and, to a more limited extent, a variety of interest groups. Yet, much policy making is based on similar policy developed in other jurisdictions and in the major international organizations such as the WTO and the OECD. In other words, significant aspects of nationally developed policies are copied from elsewhere in what is described as a process of policy transfer and learning. Hence, studies of policy transfer have pointed to a distinct limitation in most existing theoretical and empirical explanations as to how policy is made and implemented through their neglect of the role of policy transfer and learning. Moreover, policy transfer is not only a concern of academics, but a growing concern for governments. The latter are concerned to improve the performance of their policy and several have placed a greater, more systematic focus on policy transfer as a means to increasing performance. This book presents a variety of cases from differing national and international contexts that enable a valuable, comparative analysis that is absent from most literature currently available and that suggest a number of exciting research directions with implications for policy making, transference and implementation in the future.

Designed to help managers in all public sector services to fund their organizations to the greater benefit of their users, this book draws extensively fron the authors' experience and in-depth research into nine public sector organizations in the UK. With the increased power of the consumer, highlighted by the introduction of the Citizen's Charter, those in the public sector are finding themselves accountable to a far wider audience. This book tackles those problems in a clear and precise way. The reforms of the last 10 years in the public service sector mean that public sector managers need to be able to make sense of the changes to approach the future with confidence. Many organizations in the public sector have been restructured to enable them to compete in the market place effectively. Designed to help managers in all public services to run their organizations to the greater benefit of their users, this book draws extensively from the authors' experience and in-depth research into nine public sector organizations in the UK: * National Weights and Measures Laboratory * HMSO * Vehicle Inspectorate * Warren Spring Laboratory * Companies House Department of Social Security * Northampton Police * Kent Local Education Authority * London Buses Ltd * With the increased power of the consumer, highlighted by the introduction of the Citizen's Charter, those in the public sector are finding themselves accountable to a far wider audience. This book tackles those problems in a clear and precise way. - Long Range Planning, April 1993