Policy Learning in Greece and Southern Europe: The Case of EU Soft Law

This book explores the challenges that policymakers and organizations encounter when attempting to learn from policies and ideas implemented in other contexts and countries. In doing so, it not only highlights the importance of policy learning as a tool of contemporary policymaking, but shows the divergent ways in which agents learn. Drawing on empirical evidence from Greece, Spain and Italy in the context of EU soft law instruments such as the Open Method of Coordination and the European Semester, the book demonstrates how administrative, political and institutional conditions can act as obstacles towards policy learning. It will appeal to scholars of public policy and public administration, as well as to practitioners interested in understanding the mechanisms behind policy learning.