| Abstract: | There is little empirical evidence on whether the federal governmentlearns from policy experimentation in the states, the "laboratoriesof democracy. " Interviews with participants involved in formulatingthe federal Empowerment Zones/Enterprise Communities programoffer evidence of limited policy learning from state enterprisezones. Respondents were aware of general trends and drew a fewgeneral conclusions, rather than borrowing from any particularstate. None of the federal policymakers conducted an activesearch for information about the state zones, but state andfederal organizations served as channels of information aboutthe state programs. This finding suggests that such organizationsassist state-federal diffusion as well as interstate diffusionof policy ideas. |
