Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-2021

Publication Title

Journal of Public Policy

Volume

41

Issue

4

Pages

752–775

Publisher Name

Cambridge University Press

Abstract

Do states copy or reinvent language from complex policies as they diffuse, and does this depend on legislative resources? We argue that states will more frequently reinvent more complex policies, but that states with high-resource legislatures will reinvent more than their low-resource counterparts for more complex policies. We test the theory using the bill texts from 18 policies that diffused across the 50 states from 1983-2014, measuring reinvention and complexity using text analysis tools. In line with expectations, we find that complex policies are reinvented more than simple policies and that high-resource legislatures reinvent bills more than low-resource legislatures on average. However, we also find that low-resource legislatures reinvent complex policies at about the same rate as high-resource legislatures. The results indicate that even legislatures with limited resources work to adapt complex policies during the diffusion process.

Comments

Author Posting. © The Author(s) 2020. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Cambridge University Press for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Public Policy, VOL. 41, ISS.4, December 2021 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0143814X20000252

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