The Policy Diffusion Process in the Face of Shocks: Charter Schools and the Great Recession
Date
2013
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Haverford College. Department of Political Science
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Thesis
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Award
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eng
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Open Access
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Abstract
My thesis uses an analysis of the spread of charter schools across the country before, during and after the Great Recession to examine the effects of economic shocks on the policy diffusion process. Policy diffusion is the process by which ideas and innovations spread between and within governmental units. The diffusion literature describes the diffusion process as a progression through stages: generation, implementation, confirmation and communication, imitation and adoption, and saturation. These stages can be though of as points or sections of an S‐shaped curve measuring the spread of a policy over time with slow growth in early stages followed by faster spread and finally a tapering off as the policy finishes its spread. This S‐shaped curve is central to policy diffusion theory. My study shows how this smooth curve can be interrupted, bent and changed by the occurrence of an economic shock during the diffusion process.