Policy diffusion across political ideologies
Explaining Denmark’s desire to externalise asylum
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6405532 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Frowin Rausis (0000-0002-8595-5193, Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Geneva and National Center of Competence in Research for Migration and Mobility Studies (nccr – on the move), corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 48 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 1332-1360 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-19 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | West European Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0140-2382 • E-ISSN: 1743-9655 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01402382.2024.2348311 |
| OpenAlex | W4398143259 |
| Language | IT |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 38 |
In 2021, the Danish Social Democratic government tabled a bill allowing asylum seekers to be transferred to another country to process claims and provide protection. Witnessing a Social Democratic government embracing this highly controversial idea, even though less than a handful of right-wing governments outside Europe had previously outsourced asylum, is puzzling. Policy diffusion theory is used to explain the underlying mechanism and analyse the justification strategies. In the face of public attention focused on the refugee protection crisis between 2014 and 2016, the Social Democrats embraced the idea of externalising asylum in order to be recognised as responsive problem solvers. Essentially, they employed three strategies to justify the policy and to mask its origin and its inconsistency with the party’s ideology: (1) referring to policy advisors as the original source of the idea; (2) reframing externalisation as a humanitarian project; and (3) shifting the narrative about Social Democratic identity
Diffusion · Ideology · Immigration · Nationalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · European Union Policy and Governance · Gender Studies · Law · Policy Transfer and Learning · Social Policy and Reform Studies
Process-Tracing Methods
The Transformation of European Social Democracy
Systematic process analysis
Handbook of Policy Transfer, Diffusion and Circulation
Refuge Lost
Refugee Law Initiative Declaration on Externalisation and Asylum
Australian and Israeli Agreements for the Permanent Transfer of Refugees
Who Learns What from Whom
The Syrian Refugee Crisis
After the refugee crisis
Symbolic and pseudo policies as responses to diffusion of power
Manufacturing displacement. Externalization and postcoloniality in European migration control
If you can't Beat them, Join them? Explaining Social Democratic Responses to the Challenge from the Populist Radical Right in Western Europe
A hot topic? Immigration on the agenda in Western Europe
When do social democratic parties unite over tough immigration policy
Tremors, no earthquake
Stronger core, weaker fringes
How transnational party alliances influence national parties' policies
Qualitative Methods for the Study of Policy Diffusion
Taking ‘Galton's Problem’ Seriously
Electoral fortunes of social democratic parties
Theorizing policy diffusion
Introduction
Contestations of the Liberal International Order
The politics of policy diffusion
Ideology, Learning, and Policy Diffusion
A New Spatial Theory of Party Competition
The Diffusion of Policy Diffusion Research in Political Science
How do Public Officials Learn About Policy? A Field Experiment on Policy Diffusion
Ideology and Learning in Policy Diffusion
Restrictive North versus Permissive South? Revisiting Dominant Narratives on the Evolution of the Refugee Regime
Party Policy Diffusion
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |