Policy Learning in Greece and Southern Europe

This book explores the difficulties and challenges which policymakers and organizations face in their efforts to learn from ideas and policies implemented elsewhere. 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 Co-ordination 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 and a broader audience interested in understanding the mechanisms behind policy learning. Thenia Vagionaki is a Research Fellow at Princeton University, USA. Her work has been published in the Journal of European Public Policy, the International Review of Public Policy, Political Studies Review, West European Politics and Policy & Politics.