Promises of Ideational Analysis within Global Social Policy

Global social policy (GSP) as an approach crystallized at the same time as the ‘ideational turn’ (Blyth 1997) in comparative politics and in social policy analysis. Because international organizations are so central to global social policy and because they are also directly involved in the production and dissemination of policy ideas, there is clear potential for ideational analysis within GSP. Co-authored by one current (Tuba Agartan) and one former (Daniel Béland) Global Social editor, this paper takes a systematic look at the scholarship dealing with the role of ideas since the creation of the journal to assess the relationship between ideational analysis and global social policy. This critical review demonstrates the second key potential for ideational analysis within GSP: the ability to challenge methodological nationalism by exploring how national (and even subnational) policy ideas interact with cross-cutting institutions and actors within a global social system. This analysis will be followed by a new research agenda about the study of the role of ideas across global, regional, national, local policy scales that bridges global social policy and the contemporary ideational scholarship in public policy and welfare state studies.