ABSTRACT
Policy diffusion describes the process through which policies spread among a group of jurisdictions or even globally. It can be observed at and across different scales of governance, from the local to the global. Authors distinguish several causal mechanisms and a number of scope conditions. Mechanisms describe a sequence of events that explains how one policy triggers or influences a policy change in another jurisdiction. Whereas the number and types of mechanisms differ between studies, a growing consensus on coercion, competition, learning, and emulation has emerged (Gilardi 2012: 460-461).
