Policy Diffusion in Research and Technological Development

Abstract

The article explores the question of how the EC and several European governments almost simultaneously launched research and technological development (RTD) programmes during the 1980s. It is suggested that RTD policy processes within the EC and individual states were linked to each other in a European policy process, and that the convergence of such policies was a function of policy diffusion. An analytical approach of policy diffusion is outlined in order to study the linkages between national and EU policy processes. A policy diffusion perspective, which entails how policies are formed in a communication between various national political-administrative systems, can be seen as an important contribution to the study of the dynamics behind the European integration process. It is suggested that the OECD, with its informal and non-hierarchical cooperation structure, is an important condition for policy diffusion, and that this type of cooperation can also be found within the EU. The EU, which can be characterized as a type of multilevel governance, enhances communication between national political-administrative systems and thus the processes of policy diffusion.