Political Process of Policy Transter: Acceptance and Transformation of Policy Ideas

Abstract

This paper considers the analytical framework of policy transfer and analyzes the policy transfer process in the Japanese policymaking system. In this paper, we focus especially on the process of policy ideas being accepted and transformed.

In comparative political studies or policy studies, up to now there have appeared several studies on the policy diffusion process, set out through the concepts of “policy diffusion”, “policy convergence”, and “lesson-drawing”. According to these studies, the process that one country makes policy while referring to other countries’ policies as a policy model was noticed. And, based on these studies, the notion of “policy transfer” was developed. To analyze the policy transfer process, the three analytical viewpoints of “institutions”, “ideas”, and “learning” were utilized.

This paper selects the deregulation process of the Japanese airline industry as “the critical case”. We analyze the four stages in the policy transfer process, which are: 1) the generation of policy ideas of deregulation in the U.S., 2) the diffusion of policy ideas of deregulation, 3) the opposition to perfect competition, and 4) closed policy making. We consider how policy ideas of deregulation were transferred from the U.S. and transformed in the Japanese policymaking process. The results of our analysis of the case study show that “distortion of learning” was caused by “institutional change of policy ideas” and “confusion of ideas”, and this distortion changed the policy ideas of Japanese airline deregulation.