ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the applicability of the policy transfer approach to a state in transition using local government reform in the Ukraine as an example. At the same time it argues that the process of policy transfer in transition states and societies should be examined through a bottom-up case study approach. The current literature on policy transfer and related concepts is almost exclusively focused on mature policy environments. The breadth of the transformation of policy structures, policies and policy systems driven by the dissolution of the Soviet system has been dramatic both in terms of its scope and intensity. Though the Soviet system pre-supposed three levels of public administration with policy and implementation function such a division was a mere fiction. Addressing some of the shortcomings of the existing literature with particular reference to its lack of consideration of less mature policy environments, the chapter identifies the theoretical modifications necessary to improve its analytical utility.
