Europe | Charlemagne

European politicians should steal more of their neighbours’ best ideas

Here are some to start with

Politicians love to claim credit for new ideas. But originality in policymaking is overrated. Devising laws from scratch is hard. Figuring out how a new policy will work in practice is even more so. Observing how a scheme has worked elsewhere, by contrast, is quite easy. And Europe, with 40-odd countries, most of them quite similar by global standards, offers many examples to learn from. If something works well in Spain, it may work in Bulgaria, too. Why innovate when you can cut-and-paste?

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Cut-and-paste politics”

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From the November 26th 2022 edition

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