Replication Data for: Lobbying, Learning, and Policy Reinvention: An Examination of the American States’ Drunk Driving Laws

Scholars have consistently shown that learning of successful policies in other states leads to higher likelihood of policy adoption. This study extends this finding two ways. First, policy learning can also lead to more comprehensive adoption of successful policies. Second, the effect of policy learning on policy comprehensiveness is conditional on lobbying by interest groups, an alternative source of information about policy success. To test these hypotheses, we conduct a directed dyad-year analysis using a dataset on American state drunk driving regulations from 1983 to 2000. The results show that more comprehensive policy adoption by states is positively related to policy success in other states when lobbying by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is relatively low. Moreover, lobbying by MADD increases policy comprehensiveness when policy success is relatively low. This study advances the literature by examining the conditional effects of lobbying on the relationship between policy learning and policy reinvention.

学界已形成共识：借鉴其他州的成功政策经验，可提升本州采纳该政策的概率。本研究从两个维度拓展了这一研究发现。其一，政策学习（policy learning）还可推动对成功政策的更全面采纳。其二，政策学习对政策全面性（policy comprehensiveness）的影响，会受到利益集团游说的调节——利益集团本身是获取政策成功相关信息的另一渠道。为检验上述假说，本研究依托1983年至2000年美国各州酒后驾驶监管数据集，开展定向对偶年度分析（directed dyad-year analysis）。研究结果表明：当反对酒后驾车母亲联盟（Mothers Against Drunk Driving，MADD）的游说力度相对较低时，各州对成功政策的更全面采纳，与其他州的政策成功经验呈显著正相关关系。此外，当政策成功经验相对不足时，MADD的游说可显著提升政策的全面性水平。本研究通过考察游说在政策学习与政策重塑（policy reinvention）之间关系中的调节效应，推进了相关领域的学术研究。