Policy transfer and accession: a comparison of three international governmental organisations

ABSTRACT This article compares the extent of policy transfer related to the accession processes of three international governmental organisations (IGOs), the European Union (EU), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO). It is argued that this is necessary as there is a tendency for studies of IGOs as agents of transfer to focus primarily upon the transfer that occurs after a state has acceded to membership, neglecting the extent of transfer that can take place during the accession process. The key findings are: one, policy transfer occurs during the accession process in all three organisations and, to varying extents, in all three stages of the accession process; two, the extent of transfer varies by accession stage and over time for all three organisations; three, the greatest extent of transfer occurs in the pre-accession and formal accession stages; four, the greater the degree of isomorphism between an applicant’s policies and institutions and those of the IGO, the less the extent of policy transfer in the accession process.