Policy diffusion in public procurement: the role of free trade agreements

Woolcock, Stephen, (2013). Policy diffusion in public procurement: the role of free trade agreements. International Negotiation, 18(1), 153-173

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  • Sub-type Journal article
    Author Woolcock, Stephen
    Title Policy diffusion in public procurement: the role of free trade agreements
    Appearing in International Negotiation
    Volume 18
    Issue No. 1
    Publication Date 2013
    Place of Publication Leiden
    Publisher Brill Academic Publishers
    Start page 153
    End page 173
    Language eng
    Abstract This article assesses the factors shaping policy diffusion of effective, liberal public procurement regimes. Policy diffusion and the analysis of policy diffusion is less developed in public procurement than other policy areas such as investment. This is surprising given the potential economic (public procurement accounts for some 8% of GDP) and signaling (transparency, good governance) gains of adopting regimes that promote competition in public procurement markets. The article first provides an introduction to the issue of public procurement and discusses the nature of procurement regimes, the dependent variable. It then assesses the impact of key variables identified in the literature on policy diffusion, such as competition, coercion and norm emulation. It is argued that issue linkage in bilateral free trade agreements (FTA) appears to have brought about common laws � and in some cases � rules for procurement. But this stops short of a genuine diffusion of liberal procurement regimes due to negotiations being framed by reciprocity rather than efficiency considerations, the costs and complexity of implementation, as well as opposition from vested sector interests and politicians at all levels of government favoring the short term political utility of �buy local� policies.
    Keyword Public procurement
    Policy diffusion
    Free trade agreements
    Copyright Holder Koninklijke Brill NV
    Copyright Year 2013
    Copyright type All rights reserved
    ISSN 1571-8069
    DOI 10.1163/15718069-12341248
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    Created: Wed, 11 Dec 2013, 12:51:55 JST