Trends in policy transfer in local governments in Brazil

Policy transfer, the process through which policy makers learn from other places, has become a growingly frequent and helpful alternative for local governments to improve policy-making. As local governments have gained unprecedented levels of autonomy in Latin America in the past two decades, governments, scholars, interest groups, multi-lateral organizations and the public in general have become increasingly interested in policy-making and decision-making at the local level. The first section of this work examines the recent rise of local governments in Latin America, the current knowledge on policy transfer and the context of local governments in Brazil The second section of this work examines 50 cases of policy transfer at the local level in Brazil, and identifies types of key actors, paths, and geographic factors that have an effect on how local governments learn from elsewhere.