Understanding the Substance of Public Policies: Theoretical Exploration of the Nature of the National Policy Maker's Imitativeness

Examining the current well-known theories of public policy process shows that they often disregard foreign or international environment of the government. In other words, current theories cannot explain the increasing similarity of public policies among countries. In an interdisciplinary research, this article reviews six selected theoretical fields which describe in some respects the imitative nature of public policies in different countries. These theoretical fields include: lesson drawing; policy convergence; policy transfer; policy diffusion; institutional isomorphism; and policy learning. Examining these theoretical fields pave the way for a new theory of public policy process specifically in nonwestern countries.