Holzinger and Knill: Causes and Conditions of Cross-National Policy Convergence

Holzinger, K, and C Knill. 2005. Causes and conditions of cross-national policy convergence. Journal of European Public Policy 12, no. 5: 775-796.

The study of policy convergence started in the 60s, but grew rapidly in the 90s as European integration and globalization became important phenomena. There is, however, very little robust understanding of the causes and contexts in which policy convergence occurs. "This deficit can be traced to two problems. First, as Seeliger (1996) argues, much more emphasis has been placed on the presentation of empirical results than on systematic theory-building. Second, policy convergence is a rather heterogeneous research field, with scholars coming from different academic backgrounds and disciplines" (775).

Table 1 on 777 explains a relationship of measures of convergence. Table 2 (778) points to different ways that these measures can be conceptualized and measured (Degree of Convergence, Convergence Direction and Convergence Scope). Imposition, Internal Harmonization, Regulatory Competition, Transnational Communication, Independent Problem-Solving are all seen as different reasons that convergence in policy can arise. See Table 4 (793) for an overview. This table combines the different ways convergence can be measured (Table 2) with the different drivers of convergence (previous sentence).