A Federalism-Based Comparative Analysis to Diminish National Security Threats in Contemporary Policy Transfer

Brambila Martinez Francisco Javier Postgraduate student, Institute of Civil Service and Administration, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration 119571, Russia, Moscow, Prospekt Vernadskogo, 82 francisco.brambila@mail.ru Other publications by this author

The national security implications of policy transfer

As policy makers increasingly rely on policy transfer amid great competition, there is a large demand for information in the fields of political science and international studies Dolowitz and Marsh (2000). Policy transfer is not a new phenomenon, however the globalized world has changed its fundamental dynamics. On the basis of Parson’s (1996) definition of a global space in which transnational corporations and institutions have displaced the state in different ways, technological advances allowed policy-makers to communicate with each other at greater speeds (Hadjiisky, Pal & Walker, 2017). Subjecting countries to similar conditions and expanding the amount of information available leads policy-makers to look to other political systems for knowledge and ideas regarding institutions, programs and policies to increase the capacity of their own states (Dolowitz & Marsh, 2000).

The appearance of a global consensus in the aftermath of the Cold War led to the designation of policies as carriers of best practices, whose transfer would be curated by diverse international organizations regardless of their various contextual conditions that originally defined their purpose and outcomes (Peck, 2011). However, the negative outcomes of the Washington Consensus led to significant transformations of global policy development characterized by constant experimentation and corrections (Rodrick, 2006).

Under this framework, transferred policies are directed to a specific field through the coordination and combination of resources on a horizontal level (Peck, 2011). Trans-governmental networks of government agencies operate with substantial autonomy within focused policy areas, combining expertise, exchanging information, implementing agreements and often generating operational agreements (Nay, 2014). The transnational nature of this setting involves non-estate / governmental organizations, private sector firms and associations, epistemic communities in both policy development and administration within different realms of non-state regulation (Woods, 2006).

Contemporary policy transfer practices carry a wide array of national security implications, as there is an increasing tendency for the rise, influence and role of NGOs in global politics directly related to networking, organizing social movement organizations as well as the diverse mechanisms of accountability and legitimacy. Diverse approaches are used to diminish national security threats in this context, for example, Stone (2004) refers to methodological nationalism by adapting measures to avoid bias through an analytical approach and performance.

A federalism-based comparative analysis applied to policy transfer

Along the guidelines of methodological nationalism, this exercise proposes a new approach to policy transfer in the absence of policy brokers in the form NGO to diminish the threats to national security.

This new form of policy transfer is proposed for developing nations to enhance their state capacity according to dedicated mechanisms and goals in absence of direct institutional reforms and societal changes beyond a determined political dimension in a medium to long term basis. Regional powers are incentivized to embrace this new form of policy transfer methods by interregional competition and shared goals.

As the new approach to policy transfer relies on a comprehensive assessment of the local conditions during the processes of selection, adaptation and implementation of transferred policies, a dedicated method to source and classify a wide array of data and information is required. Considering that a contextual assessment of nations should consider multiple conditions that range from the general composition of state to the type, hierarchy and interactions of its elements, the required information can be obtained through existing studies on the peculiarities of different federal systems with emphasis on legal, economic and budgetary considerations.

The performance of determined policies can be analyzed through comparative studies in order to complement the contextual review of nations on the basis of their federal systems. The main causes for the success and failure of determined policies can be determined by the extrapolation of multidimensional data provided by this framework, while different hypothesis can be made around the outcomes of potential changes to aid the policy transfer process.

A multidimensional comparison of federal systems to be applied to the policy transfer process follows three steps. First, selected nations are compared according to common transferred policies of a specific historic period. Second, nations with different political systems that share common features such as geographic conditions to population size with one or many similar economic indicators are selected. Third, the influence of transferred policies determining the role of nations in a global order is analyzed.

A comparative analysis is proposed according to the peculiarities of federal systems and a wide array of economic performance indicators. For the first section general comparisons between both political systems are made with an emphasis on the federal and presidential systems and the overall structure of the country in terms of power distribution among federal subjects and regions. Special attention is made towards the general constitutional framework as to the context and amendments according to transferred policies in both nations.

For the second section economic performance indicators are analyzed by a wide array of metrics, including to their complexity and government actions. A further review of political and economic conditions is made by analyzing territorial and demographic considerations, the distribution of economic power by cities, wealth and productivity as well as in relation to other cities worldwide with similar indicators. Lastly, detailed comparisons between both nations are made on the basis of administrative divisions through which the population development and productivity of federal subjects and regions are analyzed and compared. In order to further assess the impact of transferred policies, the evolution of the HDI index, the GINI coefficient and the GDP PPP per capita are analyzed.

General conclusions

As a general conclusion, this essay agrees on the effectivity of Stone’s nationalization of policy results for its emphasis on careful domestic analysis along performance-based tools derived from policy transfer according to international standards and trends. However, to diminish the threats of political interference in the context of national security, a federalism-based comparative analysis to be integrated in the policy transfer process is suggested. This method involves available data to reduce the load on government entities and decreasing the participation of external entities amid a wide array of national security implications. The universality of this model is achieved by its assessment of governmental processes according to the national interest while remaining interconnected to global sources of information and processes that prevent the isolation of the state in a contemporary setting, for what multiple iterations can be applied to a wide array of nations regarding their different levels of development.