“Polydiffusion” in Intergovernmental Programs

Traditional notions of “point source diffusion” fail to describe the multiple channels of information that states have regarding a federally promoted innovation and the mobilization of groups into intergovernmental, intersectoral information networks. This article tests the concept of “polydiffusion” in school-to-work programs, exploring participation and information in the network, state variation in information search, the role of the Internet, and implications for policy learning in the federal system.