City Learning: Evidence of Policy Information Diffusion from a Survey of U.S. Mayors

Most studies of policy diffusion attempt to infer the processes through which policies spread by observing outputs (policy adoptions). W e approach these issues from the other direction by directly analyzing a key policymaking input—information about others' policies. Moreover, we do so by inve...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPolitical research quarterly Vol. 72; no. 1; pp. 243 - 258
Main Authors Einstein, Katherine Levine, Glick, David M., Palmer, Maxwell
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publishing 01.03.2019
SAGE Publications
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Cities
Diffusion
Jurisdiction
Learning
Local politics
Mayors
Policy making
Polls & surveys
United States > US
local politics
urban politics
policy diffusion
mayors
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Summary:Most studies of policy diffusion attempt to infer the processes through which policies spread by observing outputs (policy adoptions). W e approach these issues from the other direction by directly analyzing a key policymaking input—information about others' policies. Moreover, we do so by investigating policy diffusion in cities rather than states. Using a survey of U.S. mayors, more specifically, mayors' own lists of cities they look to for ideas, we find evidence that distance, similarity, and capacity all influence the likelihood of a policy maker looking to a particular jurisdiction for policy information. We also consider whether these traits are complements or substitutes and provide some evidence for the latter. Specifically, we find that, at times, mayors eschew similarity and distance to look to highly respected "high capacity" cities but that there is no tradeoff between distance and similarity.
ISSN:1065-9129
1938-274X
DOI:10.1177/1065912918785060