| dc.description.abstract | In an increasingly internationalized policy environment, determinants of U.S. domestic policy may include factors that are global in reach and external to the macro-level domestic political setting. The changing context within which domestic policymaking processes operate assumes policymakers will receive, or at least be aware of, information about foreign policy models and imported policy ideas. This study examines the extent to which policymakers in the U.S. Congress utilize non-domestic policy relevant information to inform the domestic policymaking process. This study measures if U.S. legislators engage in cross-national lesson-drawing by analyzing over 15,000 House and Senate committee hearing reports from 1999 to 2014 for contextually relevant questions or statements about policies operating in other countries. Committee hearings from four distinct issue areas, namely, agriculture, immigration, LGBT rights, and renewable energy, were included in the analysis to be representative of a diverse range of policy types and policy domains. The analysis suggests that references containing information about extra-jurisdictional policies are being made by both committee members and committee witnesses most frequently when discussing LGBT rights and renewable energy policies, but the purpose for which the references are offered provides inconclusive evidence of actual lesson-drawing behavior. Thus, while U.S. policymakers may be aware of the existence of policies operating in foreign countries, at least on the most superficial level, the measurable impact of this information in the domestic policymaking process remains speculative. | en_US |
