Policy innovation: What difference do policy characteristics make? A research project on Swiss cantonal disease prevention policies

Abstract

Despite the rather impressive account of policy innovation and diffusion research in recent years, one category of explanatory factors that are likely to be influential in governments’ innovation decisions is still largely unexplored – the characteristics of the policy innovation itself. Based on a discussion of the patterns of diffusion of two public health policies across the Swiss cantons, the paper conjectures that innovation characteristics might be as important as internal determinants and diffusion effects, the factors behind policy innovation that are classically studied. More specifically, it discusses how four different characteristics inherent to the basic design of the policy, i.e. technical complexity, programme costs, type of target group, and intrusiveness, might impact on the adoptability of innovative policies. Furthermore, it elaborates the research design that is being used for uncovering the effects of the four attributes, before concluding with some conceptual issues that might emerge later throughout the project.