The concept of policy learning is not new in policy studies and it has been mainly related to learning from past experiences. However, the rise in policy transfer in the recent years, triggered also by European integration, has changed the focus of learning and, placed expectations on policy makers for learning from other countries’ experiences. This paper is concerned with entrepreneurship policy learning in the post-communist context of Albania. Given the wide held assumptions on the role of entrepreneurship, policies that would encourage its development take an important role. An area that has not received much attention is the study of forms of, and the extent of entrepreneurship policy learning encouraged by the EU SME Charter in post-communist contexts. It is argued that whilst cultural and institutional factors influence the policy transfer process they may also have an impact on the kind of learning that accompanies policy transfer. Empirically, the paper draws on qualitative data from policy documents and interviews conducted in the period April-June 2009. The paper shows that first, the EU practices of knowledge exchange or best practices and the naming and shaming of countries in comparative reports of Charter’s implementation can to some extent increase the process of socialisation of applicant countries to EU norms and policies. Second, the dependency on donor resources leads to limited opportunities to learn outside the network of the donors. Finally, the EU SME Charter approach hinders domestic entrepreneurship policy innovation/experimentation that would take into account the contextual characteristics of entrepreneurship activities, because it often contributes to the development of indolent policy-making skills of looking for ready-made policies elsewhere and not engaging in contextual adaptation.
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Уводни рад:
Да
Датум:
15.06.2011.
Бр. отварања:
699
