This thesis advances our understanding of how ideas play a role in policy making by examining the processes and conditions that facilitate their international diffusion into domestic debates, their acceptance by policy actors, and the ways in which their acceptance alters policy processes and policy itself. Specifically, the thesis studies the impact of labour market policy ideas from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and its large-scale study on unemployment, the Jobs Study, in three OECD member states: Canada, Denmark and Sweden. This thesis shows that ideas play a number of roles: sometimes they are simply employed to help legitimize pre-determined policy positions; but sometimes a process of learning takes place, and new ideas change actors’ beliefs about what is and what ought to be, and as well their conception of their own interests and goals. Consistent with previous research, policy failure and uncertainty open actors up to the policy learning process and acceptance of new ideas. More than earlier studies, however, this thesis highlights the role of pre-existing beliefs. Accepting one new idea over another is largely determined by the values and beliefs actors bring to bear when judging new ideas; and thus, the cases show a pattern of acceptance for OECD ideas that largely follows along professional boundaries and/or ideological leanings. Moreover, pre-existing beliefs that are intertwined with an actor’s identity tend to be more resistant to change. As other ideational scholars argue, a change in individuals’ beliefs can alter both the policy process and policy itself. When acceptance of an idea is widespread, problems of collective action can be overcome. When beliefs are not as widely shared, their impact on policy depends on many factors. Fragmentation of power and accountability can create “veto players,” and previous policies can create constituencies of supporters, some of whom may resist change. However, during a policy paradigm change, a shift in authority over policy can alter the political landscape and whose ideas matter. Given all these variables, the impact that a belief in new ideas can have on policy is highly mediated, and policy reforms, therefore, may not resemble the ideas which triggered the acceptance of change in the first place. / Thesis (Ph.D, Political Studies) -- Queen's University, 2011-01-31 12:49:18.185

La politique militaire de la France en Afrique est en évolution. La véracité factuelle de ce constat est désormais difficilement contestable. Ce changement s’observe d’abord dans le discours où l’on parle de plus en plus d’anciennes pratiques dépassées et reconnaît que ce qui était politiquement possible et admis il y a vingt ans ne l’est plus aujourd’hui. Ce processus s’incarne ensuite dans la modification des instruments d’action ainsi que dans les modes et les niveaux d’utilisation de ces instruments. Partant de ces considérations, le présent travail se propose d’examiner les facteurs à l’origine de cette évolution. Il part des réponses jusqu’ici proposées pour apporter un éclairage nouveau au sujet des forces et dynamiques à la base des changements annoncés ou observés. Contrairement à la littérature existante qui a jusqu’ici privilégié les approches matérialistes et utilitaristes pour expliquer les transformations entreprises et celles promises dans la politique militaire africaine de la France, cette étude propose, à l’inverse, une perspective inspirée des approches cognitives et axée sur le processus d’apprentissage. Ainsi, plutôt que de voir dans les réformes ici analysées le résultat exclusif de changements structurels ou systémiques survenus dans l’environnement économique, social ou international des États, notre analyse fera davantage valoir que cette transformation a pour l’essentiel été une adaptation faite à la lumière des leçons tirées d’expériences antérieures. Cette analyse s’appuie sur l’Advocacy Coalition Framework. Développée par Paul A Sabatier et ses collègues, il postule que la prise de décision en matière de politique publique peut être mieux comprise comme une compétition entre coalitions de cause, chacune étant constituée d’acteurs provenant d’une multitudes d’institutions (leaders de groupes d’intérêt, agences administratives, chercheurs, journalistes) qui partagent un système de croyances lié à l’action publique et qui s’engagent dans un effort concerté afin de traduire des éléments de leur système de croyances en une politique publique. / France’s military policy in Africa is changing. It is henceforth difficult to contest the factual truth of this statement. This change is firstly observed in discourse where there is increasing reference to old, out-dated practices as well as the recognition that what was politically possible and acceptable twenty years ago is no longer today. This process of change is found secondly in the modification of action tools as well as the way and at which level these tools are implemented. Using these reflections as a starting point, the current study proposes to examine the factors at the root of this evolution. In referring to hypotheses put forth in the past, this study will shed new light on the struggles and dynamics at the base of these predicted or observed changes. Unlike existing literature which has, until now, favoured material and utilitarian approaches to explain the transformations already undertaken and promised in African military politics, this study will suggest a perspective inspired by cognitive approaches and centered on policy learning. Thus, rather than seeing these reforms as the exclusive result of structural or systematic changes which occurred in the economic, social or international environment of the States, our analysis will emphasize that this transformation was mainly an adaptation made following lessons learned over the course of previous experiences. This analysis is founded on the Advocacy Coalition Framework. Developed by Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith, the Advocacy Coalition Framework focuses on the interaction of advocacy coalitions, each composed of actors from various governmental and private organizations who both share a set of normative and causal beliefs and engage in a non-trivial degree of co-ordinated activity over time in order to transform the elements of their beliefs system into public policy.

高雄捷運為國內第二條捷運系統，承繼了台北捷運的經驗，在日新月異的交通需求中，也肩負開啟國內其他地區興建捷運學習的榜樣。2008年紅橘雙線通車，捷運開始逐步改變高雄民眾的交通習性。捷運的建造是政策也是挑戰，向其他政府進行學習也是必經的過程。因此研究者希望透過高雄捷運個案來分享其政策學習過程，藉由描述及資料的分析來做實際案例的呈現。 研究者利用次級資料分析法探究理論及相關研究，再透過滾雪球抽樣及深度訪談法，與曾經參與政策學習的捷運相關人員進行訪談，探討高雄捷運的政策學習過程。最後以三角交叉驗證法來比對文獻與訪談內容，提升理論與研究的對照性。研究發現，高雄捷運的地區條件、兩大組織高雄市政府捷運工程局及高雄捷運公司的定位與台北捷運有所差別，互相學習之外也發展出了各自特色。在政策學習上，台北及國外經驗皆具參考價值，在參訪、座談、考察、聘請顧問等方式向外學習之外，內部也透過小組會議、技術交流發表會來做資訊互通，同時也藉由外派或顧問的角色來與自身所學相輔相成。學習內容也由基礎內容、困境學習來深化人員掌握政策資訊的程度；另外，高雄捷運也將實用性與創意性結合，成為其他單位觀摩的範例。研究者於文末也提出建議：加強專業訓練提升人員學習動力、建立學習分享平台、培養多元視角並持續吸收國內外相關知識技術、設立獎勵及檢討機制等，希望對高雄捷運組織及人員的整體學習有所幫助。

La politique militaire de la France en Afrique est en évolution. La véracité factuelle de ce constat est désormais difficilement contestable. Ce changement s’observe d’abord dans le discours où l’on parle de plus en plus d’anciennes pratiques dépassées et reconnaît que ce qui était politiquement possible et admis il y a vingt ans ne l’est plus aujourd’hui. Ce processus s’incarne ensuite dans la modification des instruments d’action ainsi que dans les modes et les niveaux d’utilisation de ces instruments. Partant de ces considérations, le présent travail se propose d’examiner les facteurs à l’origine de cette évolution. Il part des réponses jusqu’ici proposées pour apporter un éclairage nouveau au sujet des forces et dynamiques à la base des changements annoncés ou observés. Contrairement à la littérature existante qui a jusqu’ici privilégié les approches matérialistes et utilitaristes pour expliquer les transformations entreprises et celles promises dans la politique militaire africaine de la France, cette étude propose, à l’inverse, une perspective inspirée des approches cognitives et axée sur le processus d’apprentissage. Ainsi, plutôt que de voir dans les réformes ici analysées le résultat exclusif de changements structurels ou systémiques survenus dans l’environnement économique, social ou international des États, notre analyse fera davantage valoir que cette transformation a pour l’essentiel été une adaptation faite à la lumière des leçons tirées d’expériences antérieures. Cette analyse s’appuie sur l’Advocacy Coalition Framework. Développée par Paul A Sabatier et ses collègues, il postule que la prise de décision en matière de politique publique peut être mieux comprise comme une compétition entre coalitions de cause, chacune étant constituée d’acteurs provenant d’une multitudes d’institutions (leaders de groupes d’intérêt, agences administratives, chercheurs, journalistes) qui partagent un système de croyances lié à l’action publique et qui s’engagent dans un effort concerté afin de traduire des éléments de leur système de croyances en une politique publique. / France’s military policy in Africa is changing. It is henceforth difficult to contest the factual truth of this statement. This change is firstly observed in discourse where there is increasing reference to old, out-dated practices as well as the recognition that what was politically possible and acceptable twenty years ago is no longer today. This process of change is found secondly in the modification of action tools as well as the way and at which level these tools are implemented. Using these reflections as a starting point, the current study proposes to examine the factors at the root of this evolution. In referring to hypotheses put forth in the past, this study will shed new light on the struggles and dynamics at the base of these predicted or observed changes. Unlike existing literature which has, until now, favoured material and utilitarian approaches to explain the transformations already undertaken and promised in African military politics, this study will suggest a perspective inspired by cognitive approaches and centered on policy learning. Thus, rather than seeing these reforms as the exclusive result of structural or systematic changes which occurred in the economic, social or international environment of the States, our analysis will emphasize that this transformation was mainly an adaptation made following lessons learned over the course of previous experiences. This analysis is founded on the Advocacy Coalition Framework. Developed by Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith, the Advocacy Coalition Framework focuses on the interaction of advocacy coalitions, each composed of actors from various governmental and private organizations who both share a set of normative and causal beliefs and engage in a non-trivial degree of co-ordinated activity over time in order to transform the elements of their beliefs system into public policy.

During the years 1994 and 2004, Sweden suffered two major international crisis that affected and challenged the crisis management in Sweden. This essay is based on Swedish crisis management of two national crises: the Estonia disaster 1994 and the Tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia 2004. The main question of the essay concerns the Swedish government´s crisis management during major crises and how the crisis management changed between and after 1994 and 2009. The main question is divided into three subqueries that leads the analysis. The questions are (1) What shortcomings were identified in the government´s crisis management work in connection with the two disasters? (2) What changes were made to crisis management policy after the two disasters? and (3) How can the crisis-inducing learning after the two disasters be interpreted/understood? The purpose of this essay is to find out the policy changes that took places after the two disasters, to find out if these crises have changed the work around crisis in Sweden or if the criticism levelled at the government after the Estonia disaster was the same after the tsunami disaster. The essay is based on a qualitative method that involves making a comparison between the two crises, by analysing material through state public investigations (SOU) and from the National Audit Office in Sweden. The conclusion from this essay is that the crisis management after the Estonia disaster did not result in any radical changes to improve the clear shortcomings of the crisis management. However, we were able to see that the changes the Swedish government talked about needed another major crisis, namely the tsunami disaster before the establishment of a crisis organization. Crisis management is constantly changing, albeit slowly. It is not possible for the Swedish government to wait for a new crisis to occur before the policy changes are implemented in crisis management.

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Off-the-shelf Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithms suffer from slow learning performance, partly because they are expected to learn a task from scratch merely through an agent's own experience. In this thesis, we show that learning from scratch is a limiting factor for the learning performance, and that when prior knowledge is available RL agents can learn a task faster. We evaluate relevant previous work and our own algorithms in various experiments. Our first contribution is the first implementation and evaluation of an existing interactive RL algorithm in a real-world domain with a humanoid robot. Interactive RL was evaluated in a simulated domain which motivated us for evaluating its practicality on a robot. Our evaluation shows that guidance reduces learning time, and that its positive effects increase with state space size. A natural follow up question after our first evaluation was, how do some other previous works compare to interactive RL. Our second contribution is an analysis of a user study, where na"ive human teachers demonstrated a real-world object catching with a humanoid robot. We present the first comparison of several previous works in a common real-world domain with a user study. One conclusion of the user study was the high potential of RL despite poor usability due to slow learning rate. As an effort to improve the learning efficiency of RL learners, our third contribution is a novel human-agent knowledge transfer algorithm. Using demonstrations from three teachers with varying expertise in a simulated domain, we show that regardless of the skill level, human demonstrations can improve the asymptotic performance of an RL agent. As an alternative approach for encoding human knowledge in RL, we investigated the use of reward shaping. Our final contributions are Static Inverse Reinforcement Learning Shaping and Dynamic Inverse Reinforcement Learning Shaping algorithms that use human demonstrations for recovering a shaping reward function. Our experiments in simulated domains show that our approach outperforms the state-of-the-art in cumulative reward, learning rate and asymptotic performance. Overall we show that human demonstrators with varying skills can help RL agents to learn tasks more efficiently.

跨國間的政策學習與政策移轉有逐漸增加的趨勢，但國內的相關研究仍在發展階段，本文以Rose的政策學習及Dolowitz與Marsh的政策移轉為理論架構，並以行政院勞委會2001年推出的永續就業希望工程為研究個案，以深入訪談法訪問當時參與政策規劃的三位學者顧問與兩位幕僚，探討國內參考國外經驗的政策設計過程，並分析勞委會參考歐盟第三系統就業方案的動機、政策移轉程度，最後並從政策移轉角度，對將來的政策設計提出建議。 　　本文的研究發現如下： 一、永續就業工程參考歐盟第三系統政策方案的動機在於國內九二一災區重建大軍的在地創造就業經驗與歐盟第三系統與就業方案具有相似性，兩者以第三部門創造就業管道的作法，均發揮輔導就業的成果，增加政策的可行性。此外，由於地方政府對第三部門及新的就業輔導措施成效存疑，因此，基於政策行銷的動機，永續案以「參考歐盟經驗」，與國外最新政策搭上關聯，以便說服地方政府及加強國人信心。二、政策移轉程度屬於政策移轉程度最淺的「啟發」（inspiration）程度，永續案僅參考歐盟的政策精神與概念，並非政策方案的全盤移植。由於永續案政策規劃時間不足，沒有時間及資源更深入探究歐盟作法，此外，由於台灣與歐盟的社會條件差異性大，政策方案需符合台灣社會條件與需求，因此永續案並未全盤移植歐盟方案。三、政策執行遭遇的障礙包括（1）地方政府缺乏相關經驗，因此開創的就業工作多為清潔等發展性較低的工作。（2）國內NPO、NGO的管理、人事及財務會計制度不健全，缺乏能企劃提案的人才。（3）政府初期對非營利組織的投資仍較保守，後期才投入協助NPO管理與行銷。（4）地方派系瓜分資源，公器私用。 　　本文提出的政策建議如下： 一、未來國內在進行政策移轉時，應避免外界質疑政策移轉徒具形式，國外政策經驗淪為替政策背書，可更細緻的探究國外政策方案的利弊得失，深入探討對我國政策方案的啟示及適用於我國社會環境的可行性。二、政府參考國外政策方案的研究工作，平時應有專責的研究單位負責，改善目前政策研究案委託外包、卻缺乏實際效用的情況。在短期的政策方案規劃上：應增調人力及預算支援業務主辦單位，分兩組人同時進行政策研究與政策方案的設計。三、政策可行性不確定性高時可先以小規模的先導計劃實驗，修正後再大規模實施。在沒有時間進行小規模先導性實驗計劃的情況下，從做中學、從執行中發現問題，再對政策方案本身進行微調、修正，也是一項折衷的選項。四、移轉他國的政策方案，需考慮在本國社會的條件與系絡下，政策方案需作那些調整與配套，以避免移植的方案水土不服，並應考量國內的政治生態會對政策方案造成何種影響，可如何事先預作制度設計與規劃。 　　本文並嘗試結合政策規劃與政策移轉理論（見圖5-2，頁141），在決策模式理性程度高低的分類之外，從政策移轉的視角，補充政策學習、政策擴散的觀點，解釋為何一國的政策會採納他國或國內其他機關已採行的決策，以增強對政策決策過程的解釋力。但本研究僅以永續就業工程計劃一個案為例，未來仍待相關研究繼續深入分析。 / Increased international policy learning and policy transfer have drawn high academic attention. However, there is little research to unravel both the motivation and content of policy transferred from abroad in Taiwan. This paper applies Rose’s (1993) lesson-drawing theory and Dolowitz’s (2000) framework of policy transfer to analyze how EU’s employment project, The Third System and Employment, has influenced the Sustainable Employment Plan in Taiwan and why Taiwan learns from the EU. Three academic consultants and two public officers of the Labour Affair Committee were interviewed and the process, motivation and content of policy transfer have been analyzed. There are four key findings of this paper. (1) Far from making rational decisions, policy makers stopped search for policies in other countries when the first acceptable alternative arrived. Although the local experience of job creation through the third sector in the areas devastated by 921 earthquake shares similar spirit with EU’s policy project and thus facilitates policy transfer, policy makers admit that relating policy to experience from abroad is also a technique of policy marketing to enhance policy legitimacy and public acceptance. (2) The extent of policy transfer is low and only limited to the ‘inspiration level’ due to two reasons. Besides time pressure and resources constrains during the policy making process, which refraining policy makers from more in-depth research of EU’s policy project, the recognition of heterogeneous context and social conditions in Taiwan and EU countries also leads policy makers to design policy and details of execution locally rather than copying from EU. (3) Promoting job opportunities through the third sector in Taiwan encounters several obstacles in implementation, including that most jobs created were low-skilled ones rather than sustainable ones; NGOs lack sufficient ability to execute, or even to propose employment projects; government mistrusts of NGOs; and local political fractions misuse of project budget to treat their political alliance. The policy implications from this case study are: (1) Policy makers should avoid using policy transfer as a tool of policy marketing. Rather, in-depth research of foreign policies and applicability to local context is warranted. (2) While the results of the contract-out policy research projects are usually found less practical to help policy planning, it is necessary to establish policy research centers within the government to draw lessons from abroad in the long run. In the short term, it is useful to allocate adequate research resources, including budget and manpower, during the process of policy transfer and planning to improve the quality of public policies. (3) Use policy pilots to avoid great policy mistakes when the feasibility of the policy transferred is highly uncertain. (4) Consider local context and conditions when transferring foreign policy experiences and make adjustments in advance. This paper also tries to combine policy planning and policy transfer theories (see Graph 5-2) to enhance the robustness of interpretation of the policy process which involves policy learning. While traditional analysis focusing on the extent of rationale of policy-making, this paper adopts the perspective of policy transfer and attempts to locate an improved model of policy planning. However, only one case was researched in this text and more in-depth studies are needed to adapt the analytical framework in the future.

觀光作為國家的重點發展產業，政府將藉由觀光行銷計畫的推陳出新以提升 其觀光競爭力。台灣中央政府從2001 年到2010 年推出一連串的觀光行銷計畫， 從中可以發現觀光行銷計畫的內容出現一定程度的變遷，可是目前的研究很少針 對觀光行銷計畫的變遷進行探究。因此，本研究由政策變遷理論作為探討基礎， 試圖以學習的途徑解釋觀光行銷計畫的變遷，採用文件分析法和訪談法發現觀光 行銷計畫發生哪些重要變遷，以及造成變遷的因素為何，並透過組織學習與政策 學習理論分析學習在觀光行銷計畫的變遷中所扮演的角色。 經過資料的蒐集與分析之後，結論針對研究發現與研究發現的意涵進行討論， 並提出研究建議，包括：觀光局機關首長的領導為引發學習的關鍵因素，且促使 觀光局逐漸轉型為學習型組織；在變遷與學習的關係中，也發現機關內各單位與 階層之間出現不一致的改變程度，代表觀光局仍然需要更全面的學習。因此，未 來觀光局新的首長必須持續領導觀光局的學習，平衡機關內各單位與階層之間的 改變程度，並學習新的行銷趨勢，才能不斷產出更為出色的觀光行銷計畫。 / Because the tourism industry is one of the country’s important industries, government may improve and innovate on tourism marketing plans to increase tourism competitiveness of country. From 2001 to 2010, the central government in Taiwan promoted a series of tourism marketing plans, which can be found some changes in tourism marketing plans. However, the current study has few discussions on the changes of the tourism marketing plans. Therefore, this study counts on the policy change theory as the research basis, then tries to apply learning approach to explain the changes of the tourism marketing plans. The research methods of this study use document analysis and interviews to found what important changes in the tourism marketing plans, as well as found the factors that caused the changes. Besides, through organizational learning and policy learning theory, this study analyses of the role of learning in the changes of the tourism marketing plans. After the data collection and analysis, the conclusion of this study discusses the finding and the meaning of finding, raises some suggestions as well. For example, the leadership of the head of the Tourism Bureau was the key factor which leads to learning, and the head transformed the Tourism Bureau into a learning organization gradually; between the changes and learning, this study also found so inconsistent degree of changes among the internal various units and levels that the Tourism Bureau still need for more comprehensive learning. Therefore, in order to continue producing even better tourism marketing plans, the new head of the Tourism Bureau must continue leading the Tourism Bureau to learn, balance the degree of changes among the internal various units and levels, and learn new marketing trend in the future.

Submitted by VERENA ASSUNÇÃO JACQUES DOLABELLA (v.jdolabella@gmail.com) on 2015-04-06T17:52:48Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Verena Dolabella_Dissertação MAP.pdf: 956767 bytes, checksum: 5fad4aaf6122b7ee0a9f7badaf6e6669 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by ÁUREA CORRÊA DA FONSECA CORRÊA DA FONSECA (aurea.fonseca@fgv.br) on 2015-04-09T17:05:30Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Verena Dolabella_Dissertação MAP.pdf: 956767 bytes, checksum: 5fad4aaf6122b7ee0a9f7badaf6e6669 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2015-04-14T13:01:14Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Verena Dolabella_Dissertação MAP.pdf: 956767 bytes, checksum: 5fad4aaf6122b7ee0a9f7badaf6e6669 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-14T13:01:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Verena Dolabella_Dissertação MAP.pdf: 956767 bytes, checksum: 5fad4aaf6122b7ee0a9f7badaf6e6669 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-27 / Esta pesquisa analisará o aprendizado em organizações do terceiro setor a partir de dois eixos principais: 1) Aprendizado através de análises empíricas (Avaliação de Impacto) - Pretende-se entender as principais recomendações para o terceiro setor em relação a Avaliação de Impacto e qual o cenário atual dessas práticas no contexto brasileiro. Para isso, foram entrevistadas 50 instituições que fazem parte de uma rede de organizações na área de educação, para entender como a avaliação vem sendo aplicada; 2) Aprendizado através da dimensão de Policy Learning: Social Learning e Instrumental Learning – Estabelecimento de conexão de teorias de aprendizado em políticas públicas com as instituições do terceiro setor e análise de possibilidades de aprendizado através de outras experiências e boas práticas. / This research will examine learning in nonprofit organizations from two main areas: 1) Learning through empirical analysis (Impact Evaluations) - Aimed at understanding the key recommendations for the third sector in relation to Impact Evaluations and the current scenario of these practices in the Brazilian context. We interviewed 50 institutions that are part of a network of organizations in education to understand how the evaluation is being applied; 2) Learning through the dimension of Policy Learning: Social Learning and Instrumental Learning – Aimed at connecting learning theories in public policy with third sector organizations and learning opportunities through analysis of other experiences and best practices.