Charlottesville, Virginia, Oct. 07, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Why do some states have mask mandates and others do not? How did states decide to issue stay-at-home orders in 2020? In a new book Why Bad Policies Spread (and Good Ones Don’t), Craig Volden, professor of public policy and politics at the University of Virginia’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, and University of Michigan professor Charles R. Shipan explore how policies - good and bad - are replicated or modified from state to state.
Their research finds that good policies spread when states are able to learn from policy experiments elsewhere. The three ingredients for this positive outcome are observable experiments, time to learn, and favorable incentives and expertise among policymakers.
In their new book, the team writes, “Although these ingredients are sometimes plentiful, we also note causes for concern, such as when policies are complex or incompatible with current practices, when policymakers give in to underlying political biases, or when political institutions lack the capacity for cultivating expertise. Under such conditions, states may rely on competition, imitation, and coercion, rather than learning, which can allow bad policies, rather than good ones, to spread.”
This latest research examines policymaking trends that have emerged since the COVID-19 pandemic, but also looks more broadly at trends over time in how specific policies have spread among certain states because of political ideology or pandering to voters rather than smart policymaking. For example, why and where do tough-on-crime policies spread? What factors helped states find successful policies to address youth smoking? The book considers such issues, while examining policymaking challenges facing all 50 states.
Volden, an expert in legislative politics and the interaction among political institutions, is the co-director of the Center for Effective Lawmaking, a partnership between the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University to advance the generation, communication, and use of new knowledge about the effectiveness of individual lawmakers and U.S. legislative institutions.
Volden is available to speak to the media about both how contemporary and historic policies have spread across states, as well as legislative effectiveness, which he discusses in this brief video.
