Learning across borders: Labour market and social policies

The International Social Security Association (ISSA) has always had as one of its missions the exchange of information between member organizations in order to assist them to learn about common challenges and efforts taken to meet them. The International Social Security Review has long been one of the vehicles by which such information has been distributed. It has provided a forum where policy-makers can articulate and explain in a thoughtful fashion their initiatives and their concerns and where academics can raise new issues and throw a critical light upon efforts to meet existing and perceived needs that have already been undertaken. By definition, the content of the Review provides opportunities for comparison and, on many occasions, specific contributions have a comparative component. Because it is directed to a practitioner audience as much as an academic one, contributors feel obliged to make recommendations and, indeed, are encouraged to do so. Moreover, academics working in the area of policy analysis recognize that they are not merely commentators; they are also expected to use their analysis to make suggestions about what needs to be changed and about what more, or what instead, needs to be done. In this special issue of the Review, the intention is not to generate more information about specific policies, or to compare, assess or criticize these. Rather, it is to look at how information about problems and programmes is acquired and used and how the acquisition of such information contributes to policy-making within countries. Accordingly, this is the first, explicit attempt to use the Review to analyse how and whether learning occurs. The method chosen is the presentation of a number of case studies in specific policy areas that, in some countries, lie beyond the conventional, but far from uniform, frontiers of what may be referred to as “social security”— namely, cost-management in hospitals, the integration of disabled people into work, the financing of long-term care for the frail elderly, and the provision of social pensions. The choice of “policy learning and social protection” as the title for this special issue is, therefore, intentional — it being selected to convey the breadth of the selected case studies. A deliberate decision was made to exclude “old-age pensions” as such from this list — this despite the fact that pension policy has been a matter with which the ISSA has been heavily engaged. Also excluded is active labour market policy in general, even if labour market policies for the disabled are handled in one of the specific contributions. The leaving out of these two subjects is justified on the grounds that policy learning and policy transfer have been studied quite intensively with respect to each one of them. However, precisely because much of the learning about learning involves pensions and labour market policy, both feature extensively in this introductory article. This introduction is divided into three parts. Part 1 provides an overview of the genesis of policy learning, much of it dealing with the late nineteenth century that saw, inter alia, the establishment of the Permanent International Committee on Social Insurance (Comité permanent international des assurances sociales — CPIAS), a forerunner of the ISSA. Part 2 offers a more substantial discussion of what policy learning does or might involve. Here the role of ideas is explored, their importance and how they are disseminated. This, in turn, leads to a closer examination of the motives of teachers and of learners. Part 3 looks at the limitations of the learning process and concludes by asking, and trying to answer, the question of what successful learning might involve. Academic books and articles that either contained the term “policy learning” in their title or were primarily concerned with such learning first became widely current at the start of the 1990s (Bennet, 1991; Bennet and Howlett, 1992; Rose, 1991, 1993). These studies attempted to conceptualize what such learning meant, where it was occurring and why. Many were, simultaneously, concerned with the related issue of policy transfer (Dolowitz and Marsh, 1996, 2000). Frequently, the implication was that, if an example was available, and if it appeared to satisfy policy needs, it could be replicated elsewhere, either more or less in its entirety or, more often, with appropriate modifications. The interest in learning grew out of, and was intimately related to, a much older academic interest in comparative studies. Social scientists in any one country had long been interested in what was being done elsewhere and many had developed particular relationships with another country, or group of countries, and thus were able to contrast approaches (Wilensky et al., 1985). Moreover, they were seldom shy of making judgments and prescriptions — usually in their “concluding comments”. The presumption of comparative research was very much that there was something to be learnt form others. There was also the presumption that some elements of the approach of others could be taken over. In other words, comparative social research was rarely, if ever, conducted in a vacuum. And, on this basis, it is also fair to suggest that many analysts had been participating in the policy learning process long before it had been recognized and named as such. Here, one is reminded of Molière's Bourgeois Gentilhomme, who, when his philosophy lesson degenerates into a basic lesson on language, is both surprised and delighted to learn that he has been speaking prose all his life without knowing it: Par ma foi! Il y a plus de quarante ans que je dis de la prose sans que j'en susse rien (Act 2, Scene 4). However, one can go back well over a lifetime to find cases of political scientists engaging in drawing lessons from elsewhere in an attempt to suggest what might be done in their own jurisdictions. Aristotle was doing it over two thousand years ago when, in his Politics, he looked at the governing systems of Sparta, Crete and Carthage for examples of “excellence” from which his native Athens might learn (Politics — Book II). Perhaps better known was the modernization exercise of Meiji Japan. In an effort to bring their country into a position where it was able to compete militarily and economically with Europe and the United States, Japan's rulers sent out expeditions to look for “what works” and tried to transfer or adapt this to build up equivalent institutions and practices at home (Westney, 1987). Not only were they interested in how to organize an army (Germany), a navy (the United Kingdom) or a postal service (the United States), they modelled elements of civic codes and social assistance provision from what they had seen in Germany and France (Campbell, 1992). By the later part of the nineteenth century, when policy-makers became concerned with “the social problem”, and thus “social policy” began to exist in its own right, the question of how different countries were dealing with the poor became an object of attention. The poor and “the labouring classes” were often inseparable, and the social problem was thus intimately linked with unemployment, labour unrest and wage regulation. In the final years of the nineteen century and the early years of the twentieth century, the United Kingdom (UK) government initiated a series of inquiries — notably the Royal Commission on Labour (1890-92), the Report on Agencies and Methods for Dealing with the Unemployed (1893) and the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws (1906-09). These included reports from embassy staff abroad, special correspondents and even study trips by of their on practices and policies in and and, on even In the of sent out a staff member to wage in The was with in the of and were in the of and and in some by the early twentieth century, and the and such systems from and 1993). The social policy in Germany were widely Europe and policy-makers and policy in countries such as the and as well as in and was in the early twentieth century as a out of and The government interest in its social and the Insurance that was up in the in the years to the 1987). In the years the many with their the these were upon — in the case of the with many of its or as part of a process — between France and and between and the United and of and a of on a more or less and basis, that into the policy-making The up of what is the to this process of and exchange by in into with one social policy with opportunities were to learning the of the of and with respect to labour market policy, such learning was for the of the and a process on policy was made The which was by that was by a series of elements of social notably and long-term and of social in these — known as the the at which it was — from in the in that it is not and is the and both are the initiatives of the a for some of were the of the for and as an information to common concerns and reports and that to what others were doing to have to basic The method of which the and and study and the in of as well as social policy, are to assist policy-makers to from in a to a of is to assist them in the of and and with an interest in policies and in drawing lessons from these has been an interest in how policies have been of this interest in the United and back at to the were concerned with this made in a that of a number of each with were about the that the of particular and practices and about the by which the of these were studies referred to policies other that were by the social policies — when they were or by countries — the of and The first to a of the that in one could have on policy in another in the early 1990s when a of social scientists such as what is policy what is and does it and what from A research back both from the of and from the of that has in the years or it that there is a to on three specific subjects — namely, and respect to each of these it is to motives and is it to about what can to policy-making and about and when, to can either to the of to already or to the of approaches to challenges that are how policies are learnt about and how they are a number of are into the It is that policy learning is encouraged if policy-makers they recognize they are not they to look at others in the or a for It is also often that policy-makers look for ideas to with which they feel some — often in of the of or political but also in of to as — that one might more to as a of others to the of a as have the to less can from their the of a country is seen as countries are seen by others as that, by definition, are able to Many of these for when and learning are if are as on their all elements that a of This might the of the It might also the of and or of and it the is that it is the ideas of the or the that are up by the or the the of this it also has to be recognized that the to to pension systems that to the example of the pension of have been referred to as transfer in a policy that was into in an market was as a for countries. a of social policy in developed countries have been that, as far as care of the frail is there are lessons to be learnt from the countries of where the on a substantial role and, the is not with are back in in Europe and institutions from have been seen as examples of how the poor in or might have to basic to how the of the to the is not the case of for lessons from the labour practices of its at the of the nineteenth century not be the discussion is conducted in of it is also to recognize that the of ideas might be not countries but In the of some the International are “the new In this the role of the in particular of pension — — has been much The International Labour often in with the has also an that role has to be more and has basic and of In the area of labour market policy, a position was by the the of labour market in the early 1990s and provided an to the later in the The contained elements of a to the in far as it a role to active labour market policies and, tried to how might be with something it by and the of It is not only the or organizations that have to about what policies are and how policies be organizations and labour or are also active in this as information for their and them with what is their are also seen as of these have often of “policy upon particular initiatives and these to and might well in with and for they are as of can others to their of policy often in with discussion of 1992). The of these a common of and of on for common policy and and, their they policy-makers their policies and the of a particular of and of to these. The has the to information about policy and international organizations have made use of the the on the on pensions and the on social that have been by its States, with the to these. the a on pension The ISSA has to the it can make the of countries in which it has more However, if has changed the in which ideas are for have a long The of ISSA — the Permanent International Committee on Social Insurance — grew out of an International on on the of the of this the Permanent Committee a that contained of International provided opportunities for and also for making for particular are are by their However, the term can be with the term The ideas and the of, The drawing something out of and the that they can a of more a of The of a that the the content of the have as their that a specific lesson be respect to policy, teachers might well be interested in a particular or is to might also be interested in that a particular of about how and within it offers the for analysis and A study of one of the elements of the learning of the for at some States, their — either as a with a that was on or as a that — was merely a to that they had what they were was the and a role are not concerned with a policy and are not always trying to they are to a particular have in at a the that they have the either or to they are able to of their this it is to of how such learning can it is to in of and that teachers might have at their In teachers to and the are is assistance a number of It can to and It can also with and and it can staff and the and of It can even assistance in programmes to a be this political or the in The as part of its pension has been an of such the and the have their own where out approaches to perceived challenges are The provided assistance to countries of Europe in the later 1990s and the early part of the its with the being on them and labour market and the of social ISSA provides primarily in with the the offers its own assistance is provided or on a are a from the country concerned is The is also able to often the of of the by the can often substantial but such — a — has not been an in which it has been the other it has to be recognized that the use made of — whether such as provided by the or such as made by the — is not always to This is to be the case where the are not to such as the of the but to such as to or to assistance with It also has to be recognized that being seen to make in with a more policy that is by the even if the particular have not been the to its able to such to for other Moreover, being seen to be making in the to more and modernization of and social systems was part of the countries were expected to make in order to to the as a of the or being recognized for can be an in its own can be with Here, a is out for not or is used less by on the to out cases of countries that have in some particular even if it is that the countries have much less in others. However, the to be more critical of in its the process of the not only but also to be on is to be — even in this seldom by the can but such is a as reports have to be with the member concerned before by in of has The the Commission and the United in being able to or more or less on a number of social and as well as on the more widely one is It merely to their position to others. provides by a position and by a Moreover, the of is not always a and the can use them to being in particular countries have of or being used by the developed countries the teachers have do learners. are with challenges and with and they for to these. of a is to find out what others challenges or problems have done. Here policy-makers can upon and or they can up more from others might be learning within one country — and this might be where programmes are the of as is often the case with social or of, international to and international as one of their the the of information exchange that In policy-makers to what In they often to be able to the they are making by that others have done something and done it with some Many policy-makers of the importance of being able to make about what to do or what not to However, about the of social and programmes is can be but some can be made as the is being much is made at a late By it is late to the and have a long in the United States, with respect to labour market and but such is much in Moreover, the of some programmes might a very long to be of the of others can be of as a for policy learning has been as a form of as be such is not In the of one the of the nineteenth century, and had to be seen as of social might information about what of to in order to to a particular problem or or about how to adapt existing to make them The learning” programmes in the in the first this might also to new In countries and countries there often for the and of specific for about challenges and new approaches to these and to existing in in and in that with and It also provides that policy-makers can use to the that they make also be for more It might be to for from which to are chosen Many social and on a social policy have made trips to the of in the United to study the do this to for their own to related to such is the to use what has been learnt to that are recognized as can the example of that, as a might others are it is part of a being seen to be to in a learning process might be recognized as part of the of to a of which is of of other the or to have been doing primarily for this and not because they had any interest in the being and from others is as being to the policy-making study learning are often to to what the are for successful learning to question be by it and it is that successful learning seldom A examination of an learning process — that the a long list of that being learnt by or, if something had been the this had on policy-making and of the was how in the learning programmes It has been that policy learning a of — from policy to to to to and even to However, the process excluded all of these but two — and The “social often have an role in at — are not to The learning is with respect to can be — it is are not to part people are to are expected to back to their the and any information in with any and they might In back to be In many the are merely It might be to that many participating in any one learning also the However, the programmes are to that the number of as well as the number of of are often to staff for more a staff might have to in and efforts to their to they might Here, it is to be in that the of learning is the of the of the learning The of countries with of different and different to learning as a of is the to learning that in the process It has already been that and learning might be for motives that are it is that, in some countries and at some policy-makers and policy are to be seen to be learning because to be seen to be lessons from others a of their own and their it might also as a of The provision of to its is a of for the that is up The fact that policy-makers and policy are to to the of lessons also it to whether learning even if there were opportunities for this to have have an interest in ideas and to be their they might to what is on elsewhere as the of their own of some policy-makers or do not that they have to learn at It has already been out that some in such a process in order to Many more are not that they can The they use are that suggestions that the of countries are each has up with its own and developed institutions and that are specific to country is In far as it is, indeed, the of policy-makers or to lessons and to to them is the question of its that be Here, to institutions and practices into which a new is to These institutions and practices can be but they can also be quite to lessons form the not only an of such as and of in which that is but also of and to how people for the of to lessons on how to care for frail people that on the and that practices as an that are not only to the for which they are being but are also in some of the countries where they are was recognized by In the of one he it that when whether a particular of is or it be not only to the of but also the of that in the a does not well with the of the it may be an in the the people not in it or it and as a it be or also policy were back in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, many of the that they back from or Germany were not in their home countries. The social systems of with with the institutions that had up in or or with the organizations that had up in the with the of that were being developed in how learning might be it is to go back to the between and learning to to the policy in the role have to be able to assist in of the examples study and, as of their the they have to respect the of are The has to be one of — and the term is to be — learning is learning is more to when the process is It is to that learning or The motives for in learning by all be learning that involves a exchange is more to a to and as well as It is a to that as much can be learnt from the as from the but it is also that the the of the of learning that in in the of is However, be to about problems and and they be in their the teachers be to these also be to the of their own more learning be an it is often to transfer programmes or teachers by the of There are and there are opportunities for and learning is about these this is the role of what might as well as what what might as well as what is, is what teachers what might as well as what is, is also the when the much as of with and the of particular programmes or policy learning the and exchange of learning are that the where ideas can be and