What can governments learn from each other about COVID-19 policy?

The global COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a range of country level experiences. Some governments have a reputation for success and others for failure.

There is great potential to learn from both types of experience and some incentive to emulate success. However, policy learning is characterized by ambiguity about how to understand the policy problem and uncertainty about what caused the success of particular solutions. It is a political process in which participants exercise power to define problems and interpret often-limited evidence on potential solutions. In that context, Cairney outlined a framework to understand the politics of learning, examines the extent to which current studies provide evidence to facilitate learning. and highlights the gulf between the willingness and ability of governments to learn from success.

Paul Cairney is Professor of Politics and Public Policy, University of Stirling, UK (@Cairneypaul). His research interests are in comparative public policy, policy analysis, and policy theories, applied to UK and devolved government policy, and the use of evidence in policy and policymaking