© 1985 by CSF Associates Inc.
Diffusion Research Traditions and the Spread of Policy Innovations in a Federal System
University of Arkansas Fayetteville
This essay summarizes the state of research on policy diffusion among the American states. Recognizing that this policy diffusion literature largely exhibits a geographic focus rather than the client focus predominant in most other diffusion research, the argument is nevertheless made that this field of diffusion studies has not yet become welded into a distinctive college of mutually aware scholars. Still, following Everett Rogers' model of the diffusion process, American state policy diffusion studies are reviewed so as to present emerging generalizations, current blindspots suggested by Rogers' model, and departures from other diffusion research findings. Diffusion of judicial innovations is reviewed separately as a special subset of policy diffusion research. Finally, policy diffusion research is related to larger concerns with societal development and change and with democratic politics.