Site of research: Faculty of Social Sciences
Project director: Dr. Marjaana Rautalin
Sponsor: Academy of Finland
Duration: 2017 – 2020
Description of the Academy project
Social scientific research increasingly focuses on what is called the ‘transnationalisation’ of public policies, enhanced by international organisations (IOs). To take an example, it is argued that on account of the OECD PISA Study education has become a global policy field within which various reference countries and their policies are taken as justification for initiating reforms in countries ranking low in the assessment. Yet the findings in our earlier research show that recently there have been no significant changes in the frequency with which policy reforms are justified by referring to other countries’ policies, and education policy is no exception. Yet it is true that references to policy models and recommendations promoted by IOs have increased in recent years in all policy sectors. These are interesting findings and raise the question as to why it is that policy models and recommendations issued by IOs have become ever more popular as policy justifications in domestic contexts.
To address this question the proposed study draws on earlier research conducted on the world society and epistemic governance scholarships. The following questions are posed: Given the growing use of policy models and recommendations in domestic policymaking, was the increased consumption preceded by a change on the supply side, or can it be explained by an overall change in the strategies by which national policy reforms are justified? That is, have IOs first increased their production of policy models and recommendations, which has then served to increase their use? Or did the increased demand in national contexts for such policy models and recommendations come first? Consequently, have IOs become increasingly active in devising international policy models and recommendations?
To answer these questions, the study proposed will examine the national debates on draft laws and the ways in which references to IOs’ policy advice develops therein. Additionally, the study will examine the role played by IOs in the trend with a special focus on the OECD. The study asks when the OECD became active in devising concrete policy models and recommendations and whether and how national policymakers have played a role in this activity. This part of the study focuses on the work the OECD conducts in the area of economy. Whether it appears to be a change in the supply or demand that triggered the change in the OECD’s case, it can be assumed that a similar change of emphasis would be perceptible in the knowledge production of other IOs with similar profiles.
