Policy Laundering, and Other Policy Dynamics

Abstract

Laws and policies are usually regarded as national affairs, for consideration in national policy discourses. This chapter argues, however, that we need to study the dynamics of modern policy development with an eye to international activities. I contend that this may involve focusing on three separate aspects of the policy process: policy laundering, modelling, and forum shifting. Policy laundering is a practice where policy makers make use of other jurisdictions to further their goals, and in so doing circumvent national deliberative processes. Modelling occurs when governments, overtly through calls of harmonization or subtly through quiet influence and translating of concepts, shape their laws based on laws developed in other jurisdictions. Forum shifting occurs when actors pursue rules in inter-governmental organizations (IGOs) that suit their purposes and interests, and when opposition and challenges arise, shift to other IGOs or agreement-structures. This chapter will review these dynamics and provide an example of their instantiation, being the initiatives on cyber crime emerging from the Group of Eight industrialized countries (G8) and the Council of Europe.