The importance of international organizations to the development and diffusion of international policy norms is widely recognized but is increasingly tempered by an appreciation of the pathologies of policy transfer. Using a case study of the OECD’s campaign to promote transparency in global tax affairs, this paper identifies a new and relatively distinctive form of dysfunctional policy transfer. Specifically it argues that international organizations face bureaucratic incentives to promote weak or lowest common denominator standards in order to maximize their prospects of brokering successful international agreements. However the paper also notes that while international organizations may have a short-term interest in promoting weak standards, their longer-term legitimacy is often tied to the effectiveness of the standards they promote. It is argued that this dynamic often leads to incremental policy change.
History
Publication title
Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice
Volume
16
Pagination
216-229
ISSN
1572-5448
Department/School
School of Social Sciences
Publisher
Routledge
Place of publication
UK
Rights statement
Copyright 2013 The Editor, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice