In direct contrast to the discussion in the previous section, one of the most significant insights from some, often large n, compara-tive policy studies was that nationally distinct political character-istics were only very weakly correlated with particular policies and that the dominant developmental process in advanced industrial countries was one of convergence. Freeman (1985, p. 469) summarised the challenge as follows:
The idea that distinctive and durable national policymaking styles are causally linked to the policies of states asserts that ‘politics determines policy’. The policy sector approach argues, in contrast, that the nature of the problem is fundamentally connected to the kind of politics that emerges as well as the policy outcomes that result. The policy sector approach shifts our attention away from political inputs to categories of issues and outputs of the political system; it suggests that ‘policy deter-mines politics’.
It can be argued that some policy sectors and policy issues within them are less susceptible to domestic politics than others. For example, core welfare services that Esping-Andersen focused on might be much more deeply rooted in the culture of a political system than other services such as sport. Thus while there might be general pressures making for convergence, their impact varies across policy sectors. However, it is not just the relationship of a policy sector or problem in relation to core cultural value that
explains the differential impact of convergence pressures, it might also be the intrinsic characteristics of the problem or issue insofar as the particular properties (constraints and pressures) of the problem ‘will override whatever tendencies exist toward nation-ally specific policies’ (Freeman, 1985, p. 486). To quote Heinelt,
‘the thesis “policies determines politics” would imply – given that a policy sector would be seen as the only relevant variable for explaining politics – that institutions, parties, forms of interest mediation, political culture etc. do not matter, only the policy sec-tor does’ (2005, p. 7).
One important, and possibly crucial, indicator of conver-gence is the extent to which a broad range of countries with dif-ferent political, socio-economic and cultural profiles adopt similar policy goals. As has already been suggested the propor-tion of, admittedly more wealthy, countries whose govern-ments have accepted elite sport success as a sport policy goal is high and growing. If it is accepted that there is convergence in policy goals, then the next area for investigation is in relation to the policy instruments that have been selected to achieve that goal and crucially whether the choice of policy instruments is constrained by the nature of the policy objective. In other words it can be hypothesised that there is little scope for variation in instrument selection if a country wants to win Olympic gold medals: either some policy instruments are so much more effec-tive than others that they are selected even though they may jar with deeper cultural values or the repertoire of policy instru-ments is so limited that there is little scope for variation in policy selection.
Conclusion
The chapters that follow are a response to the conclusions drawn by Green and Houlihan in their 2005 study of elite sport development and summarised above. Each contributor was asked to review the conclusions drawn from the study of Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom and either work within Green and Houlihan’s analytical framework or to take it as their point of departure if they considered that their particu-lar country was sufficiently distinct. Each chapter provides an insight into the history and current political and organisational context of elite development policy and will allow firmer con-clusions to be drawn about the relationship of elite develop-ment to broader sport policy and the extent to which each country’s distinctive history and socio-economic and cultural profile affects the intensity with which elite success is pursued and the particular policy instruments that have been selected to
achieve policy goals. In particular the nine country studies will enable a fuller debate about the relationships between politics and policy in relation to elite sport goals.
One concern in selecting the countries for inclusion in this analysis was to move beyond the group of English speaking countries often selected for comparison. Other criteria included the concern to select countries that have a history of success in international sport in general, and the Olympic Games in particular, such as the United States and Germany, as well as countries, such as Singapore, which aspire to international sporting success. However, there was also a desire to include examples of countries which had particular characteristics such as Poland (former communist government), Singapore (small and relatively rich country), and New Zealand (small popula-tion and strong sporting culture). It is not claimed that the nine countries are representative, but it is suggested that they have been drawn from a sufficiently broad range of institutional, his-torical and political contexts to allow, at least tentative, conclu-sions to be drawn regarding trends in elite sport development systems.
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