Abstract
Over the past three decades, sport has developed into a global phenomenon. The increasing economic, cultural and political significance of sport has been recognized by governments throughout the world. Through a careful review of cross-national research literature on sport policies since the late 1960s, when the globalization of sport began to emerge, it is suggested that there were three developmental stages in this field. The first stage was the decade from the late 1960s, stimulated by the international development of the "sport for all" movement. The next stage was the decade of expansion of collaborative efforts among scholars encouraged by the foundation of the International Committee on Comparative Physical Education and Sport(ICCPES)and the adoption of the International Charter on Physical Education and Sport by UNESCO in 1978. The final stage was the decade that saw the political dislocation of the countries of Eastern Europe and the consolidation of the new European Community. During this period, most countrie were confronted increasingly by similar problems and issues such as drug abuse, spectator violence, the exploitation of young athletes and the access of television channels to major international sport events. A global network for sport information has developed to access data from the "gray literaure" in this field. Research methodology has also improved from a descripitive or encyclopedic approach to more dedicated adoption of research parameters and theoretical models of policy analysis in general.
