The role of ideas in policy transfer: the case of UK smoking bans since devolution

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between ideas and interests in policy change by examining tobacco control in each country of the United Kingdom (UK). In all four, the moves towards further prohibition reflected international trends, with evidence of policy transfer and the virus-like spread of ideas which has shifted the way that tobacco is framed. However, there are notable differences in the development of policy in each territory. This reinforces conceptions of transfer in which the importation of policy is mediated by political systems. Differences in policy conditions, institutions and 'windows of opportunity', mean that our conclusions on the role and influence of interest groups, institutions and agenda-setting vary by territory, even within a member state. This suggests that a focus on an 'idea whose time has come' should be supplemented by careful analysis of the political context in which the idea was articulated and accepted.

studying preference attainment using spatial models

“…Those two dimensions are recurrent in studies on European party politics and public opinion: pro-European integration v. anti-European integration and social left v. social right (Hooghe et al, 2002; case under analysis. The debate between material and post-material values, namely what have been called the political economy and public health frames, represents the traditional dimensions on which national debates on tobacco control have been based in the last decades (Cairney, 2009, Cairney et al, 2012Frankenberg, 2004;Gruning et al, 2008;Marmor and Lieberman, 2004;Studlar, 2007Studlar, , 2009Studlar, , 2010. Nonetheless, this dimension has been associated with another one in Europe: whether EU should regulate on this area or not and how.…”

How can we demonstrate the public value of evidence-based policy making when government ministers declare that the people ‘have had enough of experts’?

“…(Pendlebury, 2016). Further analysis of policy learning across the UK, on the lines of work on the smoking bans (Cairney, 2009), would clearly be useful.…”

Pressure Politics and the ‘Scottish Policy Style’

“…The smoking ban was a pivotal moment in Scottish tobacco control (and is sometimes described as the most important bill in Scottish Parliament history), but might also be regarded as the logical conclusion to 20-30 years of policy change, with public health and medical groups increasingly consulted at the expense of tobacco companies. Indeed, tobacco companies are more willing than most organisations to employ firms to make legal challenges on initiatives (such as the Scottish Government plan to enforce plain packaging, with large health warnings for cigarettes) if their 'venue shopping' at the Scottish, UK and EU levels proves unsuccessful (Cairney, 2007b;2007d;2008;2009a;Asare et al, 2009;Cairney et al, 2012).…”