Publius The Journal of Federalism · 1997 · 78 citations · 0 references
Public AffairsEducation PolicyPublic PolicyInnovationPublic Choice TheoryState Education PolicyEducation Policy AnalysisInnovation DiffusionInstitutional DiffusionPolicy DiffusionPolicy InnovationPolicy MakingEducational Innovation DiffusionHorizontal Policy DiffusionInterstate Policy DiffusionPolicy Diffusion In EducationPolicy Diffusion MechanismsPolicy Diffusion ModelsPolicy Innovation DiffusionPublic Policy Diffusion
Our knowledge of how policy innovations diffuse in federal systems could be enhanced by paying greater attention to the behavior of policy entrepreneurs. This study shows how policy entrepreneurs helped stimulate the diffusion of state school-choice plans by collecting and generating evidence of workability of this innovation. Importantly, these policy entrepreneurs have often used evidence from local experiments to promote state policy change. Thus, a state-local nexus exists in the diffusion school choice. This analysis suggests that there is value in conceptualizing policy innovation diffusion a federal system as both a horizontal (that is, state to state) and a vertical (that is, state and local) phenomenon.