Michael Mintrom

Policy Entrepreneurs and the Diffusion of Innovation

Theory: In the literature on policy innovation diffusion, political scientists have paid little attention to how ideas for innovation gain prominence on government agendas. By considering the actions of policy entrepreneurs-political actors who promote policy ideas-we can gain important insights into the process of policy innovation and innovation diffusion. Hypotheses: Policy entrepreneurs constitute an identifiable class of political actors. Their presence and actions can significantly raise the probability of legislative consideration and approval of policy innovations. Methods: Event history analyses of the determinants of legislative consideration and approval of an idea for education reform-school choice-in the 48 contiguous United States from 1987 through 1992. The data set consists of unique information collected in a mail survey of members of the education policy elite in each state, augmented with published statistics. Results: Policy entrepreneurs were identified as advocates of school choice in 26 states. While controlling for rival hypotheses, the presence and actions of policy entrepreneurs were found to raise significantly the probability of legislative consideration and approval of school choice as a policy innovation. These results suggest policy entrepreneurs should be given more attention in the literature on policy innovation diffusion.

Policy Networks and Innovation Diffusion: The Case of State Education Reforms

Scholars in many fields have long recognized the role that social and professional networks play in the diffusion of innovations However, among political scientists, an awkward separation has emerged between scholars investigating policy diffusion processes and those investigating policy networks and, more generally, the role of ideas in politics In this article, we present a theoretical argument for integrating insights from policy network studies into diffusion studies Since they face clear incentives to tap the resources of policy networks, we give policy entrepreneurs a prominent place in this discussion Using event history analysis models of the diffusion of school choice ideas across the United States, we test the empirical relevance of our discussion and find that greater involvement in policy networks significantly increases the likelihood of policy entrepreneurs achieving their legislative goals Based on our theoretical discussion and these empirical results, we suggest that political scientists investigating the diffusion of policy innovations should pay careful attention to the role that policy networks play in this process.

Transnational Networks and Policy Diffusion: The Case of Gender Mainstreaming

How can we account for the global diffusion of remarkably similar policy innovations across widely differing nation-states? In an era characterized by heightened globalization and increasingly radical state restructuring, this question has become especially acute. Scholars of international relations offer a number of theoretical explanations for the cross-national convergence of ideas, institutions, and interests. We examine the proliferation of state bureaucracies for gender mainstreaming. These organizations seek to integrate a gender-equality perspective across all areas of government policy. Although they so far have received scant attention outside of feminist policy circles, these mainstreaming bureaucracies—now in place in over 100 countries—represent a powerful challenge to business-as-usual politics and policymaking. As a policy innovation, the speed with which these institutional mechanisms have been adopted by the majority of national governments is unprecedented. We argue that transnational networks composed largely of nonstate actors (notably womens international nongovernmental organizations and the United Nations) have been the primary forces driving the diffusion of gender mainstreaming. In an event history analysis of 157 nation-states from 1975 to 1998, we assess how various national and transnational factors have affected the timing and the type of the institutional changes these states have made. Our findings support the claim that the diffusion of gender-mainstreaming mechanisms has been facilitated by the role played by transnational networks, in particular by the transnational feminist movement. Further, they suggest a major shift in the nature and the locus of global politics and national policymaking.

Institutional Arrangements and the Creation of Social Capital: The Effects of Public School Choice

While the possible decline in the level of social capital in the United States has received considerable attention by scholars such as Putnam and Fukuyama, less attention has been paid to the local activities of citizens that help define a nations stock of social capital. Scholars have paid even less attention to how institutional arrangements affect levels of social capital. We argue that giving parents greater choice over the public schools their children attend creates incentives for parents as “citizen/consumers†to engage in activities that build social capital. Our empirical analysis employs a quasi-experimental approach comparing parental behavior in two pairs of demographically similar school districts that vary on the degree of parental choice over the schools their children attend. Our data show that, controlling for many other factors, parents who choose when given the opportunity are higher on all the indicators of social capital analyzed. Fukuyama has argued that it is easier for governments to decrease social capital than to increase it. We argue, however, that the design of government institutions can create incentives for individuals to engage in activities that increase social capital.

Market Organizations And Deliberative Democracy Choice and Voice in Public Service Delivery

Two distinct approaches have been proposed for tackling bureaucratic inefficiency and insensitivity. One replaces political control and government supply with citizen/consumer sovereignty and market forces. The other supports greater citizen involvement in public decision making. But market forces and citizen participation can be mutually reinforcing. The author shows this by comparing the practices of charter schools and traditional public schools. Charter schools are shown to provide opportunities for yoking citizen voice with consumer choice. As such, they create spaces where deliberative democracy might be encouraged and they present organizational models that could inform other areas of public service delivery.

Educational Governance and Democratic Practice

A preoccupation with academic quality has guided contemporary education reforms in the United States. This is hardly surprising, because political and business elites recognize that well-trained, high-skilled workers are crucial for regional competitiveness. Many parents have also come to see academic credentials as vital to their childrens future well-being; they have thus sought more control over their childrens schooling. As these changes have been occurring, others have voiced concerns about the state of civic engagement and democratic practice. With questions emerging over how public policies might promote democracy, the democratic function of public schooling has received renewed scrutiny. However; as yet, no effort has been made to explore the commensurability between reform efforts motivated by quality and accountability concerns and the growing discussion of education for democracy. This article begins that task, indicating where trade-offs must be made between goals and where goals could be advanced in mutually supporting ways.

Policy entrepreneurs and controversial science: governing human embryonic stem cell research

Policy entrepreneurs are political actors who seek policy changes that shift the status quo in given areas of public policy. This contribution examines the actions of policy entrepreneurs who have sought government funding and favourable regulation to advance human embryonic stem cell research. Those policy entrepreneurs have faced significant opposition owing to the morality issues at stake. Placing the actions of those policy entrepreneurs in a broader context makes two contributions. First, it explores how policy entrepreneurs pursue their goals in the face of intense morality politics. Second, it illustrates how the work of policy entrepreneurs can be both supported and inhibited by ideas, institutions and interest-group politics.

Responsibility and School Governance

The concept of responsibility is highly relevant to the organization of public schooling. Through public schools, adult citizens allow for the formal nurture and training of children to become full citizens, able to participate in our shared social, economic, and political life. With growing awareness of the importance of effective schooling to individual and collective well-being, wide-scale attempts have recently been made to reform school governance in the United States and internationally. The authors show how use of a responsibility framework can generate important insights into such reform efforts and their effects. Scholars and practitioners have done well incorporating accountability into the language of policy and practice. Little has been said about responsibility. The authors address this omission and apply their framework to interpret two distinctive reform strategies: (a) efforts to strengthen mayoral control over urban schools and (b) the creation of charter schools.

DEREGULATING FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION: DELIVERING THE GOODS

This book examines both the causes and effects of government intervention in the operations of the freight transportation industry. While overviews of all major segments of the transportation industry are provided, the focus is on the trucking mode in particular. Trucking is the largest and most important component of freight transportation and arguably has the most varied regulatory history. For most of this century, trucking has been governed by a prototypically dual system that granted considerable autonomy to both state and federal levels of government. Hence, it is a good case from which to analyze the consequences of multilevel government policy and demonstrate how even seemingly minor state operating restrictions can have sizable effects on the performance of the industry and the economy at large. More important, the trucking industrys regulatory structure provides a fair test of whether contemporary theories of regulatory decision making are valid within a federal system. The book is divided into six sections, with the following titles: 1. Introduction; 2. The Development of Transportation Regulatory Federalism; 3. Interstate Trucking Deregulation; 4. State Economic Regulation of Trucking; 5. State Operating Restrictions on Trucking Firms; 6. Conclusions.

Managing the research function of the university: pressures and dilemmas

How should universities manage their research function? Today, research‐based knowledge is viewed widely as fundamental to economic advancement. As a result, universities everywhere are facing pressure to rethink their research activities. A general model of the research process is presented here. Linkages are drawn between that process, other university activities, and factors that shape the broader operating context of the university. The model provides a focus for exploring how universities might respond to contemporary performance pressures. Key policy options are identified for those seeking to manage university research and commercialization activities more effectively. Dilemmas that arise in choosing alternative policy approaches are highlighted.