@spswspsw.york Are Cultural Differences Between Nations a Barrier to Cross-National Policy Learning? Award ES/J00460X/1 John Hudson University of York, UK Nam K. Jo SungKongHoe University, South Korea Antonia Keung University of York, UK

@spswspsw.york Overview Draw together two strands of research Policy transfer/policy learning processes Impact of culture on politics of welfare policy Some initial reflections

@spswspsw.york Policy Transfer & Culture Often shapes search for lessons Key to understanding national differences Said to influence policy success in host country… …and so of transfer to recipient country A commonly cited barrier to policy transfer

@spswspsw.york The Evans and Davies Model

@spswspsw.york Welfare States & Culture ‘Culture matters’ thesis ‘Macro’ perspective – Broad conception, stable dominant beliefs – often post hoc explanations ‘Micro’ perspective – Public opinion, – specific issues, unstable attitudes Culture is a nebulous concept

@spswspsw.york ‘Theories of political culture emphasize the distinctiveness of national political values, and imply that trying to draw lessons across national boundaries will fail. The success of a programme in a given country is ascribed to its distinctive values and beliefs or style of policy, implying that any attempt to export it elsewhere would be doomed to failure because each national culture is deemed unique. A programme that would be acceptable in Swedish political culture may not be acceptable in the United States, and vice versa. However, such general statements do not identify the specific features of a culture that are obstacles to lesson-drawing.’ (Rose, 2004: 93)

@spswspsw.york Can We Measure Culture? Jo (2011) culture as stable societal values – More concrete than macro – More enduring than micro – Proxy for national culture Cultural context of social policy making – Interacts with politics, economics, institutions – culture as meso-level influence Not a decisive influence, but a significant one

@spswspsw.york Extracting Societal Values Identify stable, distinct examples of societal values Data from successive waves EVS/WVS data – 173 societal cases; 243,975 responses – 59 countries x max 4 time points – Factor analysis of pooled data – Manual inspection and reanalysis Built on Hofstede, Jo, Schwartz, van de Vijver et al

@spswspsw.york Extracting Societal Values Societal ValueExample Survey Item RelgiosityGod is important in my life Conservative Social NormsIs divorce permissible? Permissive Values on Adherence to Laws Justifiable to cheat on taxes? Optimistic ValuesSatisfied with your life? Traditional Family ValuesIs marriage an out-dated institution? Interpersonal toleranceWould you not like heavy drinkers as your neigbours? Political ActivenessDo you participate in lawful demonstrations? Political OrientednessDo you regularly discuss politics with friends?

@spswspsw.york Policy Impact Regression analysis, medium term picture Independent variables – Societal values – Economic context (GDP per capita, growth, unemployment) – Political context (cabinet composition) – Historical Institutional context (welfare regime) Dependent Variables: – unemployment spending – family policy spending – maternity leave policy structures

@spswspsw.york Policy Impact Unemp Exp (% PE) Unemp Exp (% GDP) Fam Pol Exp (% PE) Fam Pol Exp (% GDP) Maternity Leave (FTE) Culture Matters? ✔✔ Any Key Values? - Perm Laws + Toler - Perm Laws + Toler - Religiosity + Con Norms + Toler + Perm Laws + Opt Val Other Factors? Regime (SE) Economy Regime (SE) Economy

@spswspsw.york Policy Impact Unemp Exp (% PE) Unemp Exp (% GDP) Fam Pol Exp (% PE) Fam Pol Exp (% GDP) Maternity Leave (FTE) Culture Matters? ✔✔ ✔✔ Any Key Values? - Perm Laws + Toler - Perm Laws + Toler - Religiosity + Con Norms - Religiosity + Con Norms + Toler + Perm Laws + Opt Val Other Factors? Regime (SE) Economy Regime (SE) Economy RegimeRegime (SD) Regime Left Cabinet

@spswspsw.york Policy Impact Good degree of support for culture matters thesis Some interesting findings – Interpersonal tolerance, religiosity Some important limits – Data driven, intepretation, gaps in data NB: only examples of societal values

@spswspsw.york Policy Impact Ex ante… similar for ex post Both matter for Policy Transfer Can examination of culture help with identifying candidates for policy transfer? QCA methods may help trace processes?

@spswspsw.york Policy Impact: Family Policy Proximate Factors Remote Factors Two routes with combined coverage of and consistency with LOW SPENDING of growth Consistency with LOW SPENDING of and raw coverage of left government AND growth Consistency with LOW SPENDING of and raw coverage of LEFT GOVERNMENT Consistency with HIGH SPENDING of and raw coverage of EXIT ROUTE Intermediate Factors LIBERAL Consistency with LOW SPENDING of Consistency with LOW SPENDING of and raw coverage of TRADITIONAL FAMILY VALUES AND RELIGIOSITY LEFT GOVERNMENT Consistency with HIGH SPENDING of and raw coverage of EXIT ROUTE TRADITIONAL FAMILY VALUES AND conservative social norms Consistency with LOW SPENDING of and raw coverage of 0.503

@spswspsw.york Conclusions Culture long seen as a barrier to policy transfer Legitimate questions about how we measure it In-between analysis addresses measurement? QCA may help trace pathways Captures complex, non-linear processes But, more work needs to be done