Comparing Pathways of Policy Internationalization: The Transfer of Brazilian Social Programs

Abstract

Comparative policy analysis is at the heart of research that attempts to understand how policies travel. Most of the literature on policy transfer had been developed using the empirical background of policies migrating within the Global North or from there to developing countries. Studying policies that migrate within the Global South is relevant from a theoretical perspective, insofar as it allows us to identify new dynamics, agents and mechanisms involved in policy transfers. This article analyzes two Brazilian policies that have been diffused around the globe: The Family Allowance Program and the Food Purchase Program. This research explores how these policies have been internationalized and what conditions have facilitated this process. To explain this movement, we combine the study of individuals, domestic and international organizations, political structures and change. We argue that individuals have been fundamental to internationalizing Brazilian policies. They have benefitted from both national and international structures and organizations that have facilitated the diffusion of policies that they have promoted abroad. This study relies on field work carried out in Brazil, Chile and Italy. We use a process-tracing strategy to reconstruct the pathways of diffusion.