Failures: Diffusion, Learning, and Policy Abandonment. (March 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Volden, Craig
• Editors: Boehmke, Frederick J.; Pacheco, Julianna
• Is Part Of: State politics & policy quarterly. Volume 16:Number 1(2016:Mar.)
• Page Start: 44
• Page End: 77
• Publication Date: 2016-03
• Subjects: federal -- state -- federalism -- policy innovation -- diffusion -- public policy -- welfare policy -- legislative professionalism -- legislative politics -- pooled time series -- quantitative methods -- methodology; State governments -- United States -- Periodicals; Political planning -- United States -- States -- Periodicals; Gouvernements d'États fédérés -- États-Unis -- Périodiques; Politique publique -- États-Unis -- États -- Périodiques; 320.97305
• DOI: 10.1177/1532440015588910
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1532-4400

Abstract

Abstract : Studies of the diffusion of policies tend to focus on innovations that successfully spread across governments. Implicit in such diffusion is the abandonment of the previous policy. Yet little is known about whether governments abandon policies that have failed elsewhere, as would be consistent with states acting as policy laboratories not only for policy successes but also for failures. This article focuses on the possible abandonment of failing welfare-to-work policies in the formative years (1997–2002) of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program across the 50 U.S. states. Using a dyad-based event history analysis, I find that, if both states in a pairing have a policy and one state's policy fails (in employing welfare recipients, reducing welfare rolls, or reducing overall poverty rates), then the other state is much more likely to abandon that failing policy. Moreover, such learning from the other state's experience is more common when the states are ideologically similar to one another and when the legislature in the potentially learning state is more professional.