Why do non-transformative ideas become policies? An analysis of the adoption of circular economy policies in the European Union

Abstract

The environmental crisis demands the enactment of transformative ideas to build policies that lead to a sustainable economy and society. However, national and international institutions often keep reproducing non-transformative ideas that are insufficient to address the crisis. Through document analysis and interviews with key actors, I explore why non-transformative ideas are reproduced in the case of policy-making in the context of the circular economy (CE) in the European Union (EU). I built this thesis on the intersection between two concepts: (1) collective imagination, and (2) policy learning. The literature on public imaginaries explains how ideas are clustered in consistent imaginaries that shape how stakeholders make sense of the world. Policy learning explains how such ideas can be adopted, explaining change in public imaginaries. This thesis consists of four papers. The first classifies how the EU Commission’s adoption of the CE shaped its environmental policies towards a certain version of the CE. The second scrutinises how EU member states frame justifications for and expectations around the CE. The third analyses the impact of the CE on the way the Members of the European Parliament imagine the economy. The fourth identifies the factors that account for the EU’s adoption of the non-transformative idea of the CE. I found that the CE adoption led to a set of non-transformative changes within the EU’s policies and public imagination. Hence, I argue that the adoption of a singular idea, such as the CE, is insufficient to transform public imaginaries. I also argue that the idea of a non-transformative CE was adopted because it reflected the interests of influential stakeholders that resisted the transformation of the status quo. Based on these findings, I advance the theory of policy learning by identifying four overarching factors that account for idea adoption. These are (1) idea construction, (2) idea leadership, (3) idea empowerment, and (4) idea pioneership. Also, I identify the presence of positive feedback loops among the identified factors that reinforce and amplify their impact on policy learning. In this thesis, I unveil why non-transformative ideas are adopted, leading to insufficient responses to critical challenges such as the environmental crisis. Hence, this thesis provides key insights to challenge non-transformative ideas and to promote transformative ideas that provide more adequate responses to the environmental crisis.