Policy transfer and British social policy : learning from the USA?

Over the past twenty years the British State has undergone fundamental transformations in most areas of public policy, particularly those associated with social policy - welfare, health, education, and law and order. The purpose of this book is to develop and use a model of policy transfer to illustrate how many of the recent changes in British public policy can be traced directly to the process of policy transfer, particularly policy transfer between the United States and Britain. It introduces and illustrates the concept of policy transfer through a selection of case studies, demonstrating its role in the development of particular policy areas, each of which involve different processes, actors and implications. At the same time, each case study also reveals the serious problems in adapting 'foreign' models to their new settings. Policy Transfer and British Social Policy argues the wider usefulness of the concept of policy transfer in the analysis of policy and institutional development; its analysis and case studies will be invaluable to students and scholars in the fields of public policy, social policy, comparative politics and developmental studies.