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.

学界已有诸多研究证实，对其他州的成功政策开展政策学习，能够提升政策采纳的可能性。本研究从两个维度拓展了该研究结论：其一，政策学习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的影响，会受到利益集团游说的调节——利益集团是另一类政策成功相关信息的来源。为验证上述假说，本研究采用1983年至2000年美国各州酒驾监管政策数据集，开展定向二元年度分析（directed dyad-year analysis）。研究结果显示，当母亲反对酒驾协会（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呈正相关关系。此外，当政策成功程度相对较低时，MADD的游说能够提升政策全面性。本研究通过探讨游说在政策学习与政策再造之间关系中的调节效应，推动了该领域的学术研究进展。