ABSTRACT
It is implicit to the concerns of this book that generalisations about the policy process aim to apply across countries, policy domains and time periods, and that therefore questions must be explored, through comparative studies, about the extent to which this is in fact the case. This is particularly so for many of the institutional theories considered in Chapter 4, with the further implication that if countries differ because of their particular institutional configurations, then their policy processes and policy outputs are likely to differ as well. Whilst it is easier to show that political systems diverge rather than converge, there is, nevertheless, a sense in which institutional theory, at the very least, needs a comparison to demonstrate how divergence occurs. This chapter therefore aims at briefly presenting comparative approaches that examine policy differences (e.g. across international regimes, countries and policy sectors, and over time as well) and suggest how institutional differences may help to explain these.
