Policy learning in an enlarged European Union: environmental NGOs and new policy instruments

Abstract:

This paper offers an examination of environmental non-governmental organizations' (ENGOs') efforts to shape the adoption and use of new environmental policy instruments in an enlarged European Union. Applying a framework of policy learning, particular attention is given to the under-researched role of ENGOs as policy 'teachers' or 'exporters' of policy lessons. To the questions 'who's learning, what, and to what effect?' (Bennett and Howlett 1992), the paper adds: who's teaching, what, and with what effect? The paper highlights ENGOs' ambivalent attitudes towards new policy tools and demonstrates how that ambivalence shapes their teaching strategies and success. It offers preliminary findings suggesting how teachers, and competition amongst them, can shape the dynamics of policy learning in the context of an enlarged EU.