As Levy (1994, p.288) explains, policy-makers might try to institutionalise learning and fail due to political, economic, or bureaucratic constraints.ĨIn sum, considering that this paper seeks to expose the role of misinformation in blocking change in U.S. For that to happen, it is necessary that policy-makers successfully institutionalise learning into organisational procedures-a process that Levy (1994, p.287) calls “organisational” or “governmental learning”.ħThus, contrary to “experiential learning”, “governmental learning” requires policy change to take place-otherwise, learning is simply ignored and eventually forgotten (Knopf, 2012, p.87 Levy, 1994, p.287-9). However, even if political actors learn and change their beliefs on a failed policy, it will not necessarily result in policy change (Knopf, 2012, p.85 Levy, 1994, p.290). By its turn, “experiential learning” is a “change of beliefs or the development of new beliefs, skills, or procedures as a result of the observation and interpretation of experience” (Levy, 1994, p.283). As Birkland (2006, p.8-9) asserts, political action is greatly motivated by beliefs. policy-makers were unable to learn?” (Loveman, 2006, p.xiv).ĦTo answer these questions, it is necessary to identify what exactly “learning” means. anti-drug policies are such a failure, why is it that “most policymaking bodies at the national and international level have tended to avoid open scrutiny or debate on alternatives” (GCDP, 2011, p.4)? Equally, why is the Office of National Drug Control Strategy legally prohibited of even considering any deviation from the current strategy, and why doesn’t any sitting politician in Washington openly support the termination of the war on drugs (Scherlen, 2012, p.71)? In sum, “why does the United States continue to pursue failed policies from the past decades as if U.S. Notwithstanding, as long as a policy fails to attain the desired results, the potential for learning and the need for change will always be present, making it necessary to explain why learning and change are not happening.ĥBearing this in mind, if U.S. Policy-makers might just as well learn the “wrong lesson” by misinterpreting data, or ignore learning for some political/bureaucratic/economic interest, or persist on failure in the hope of long-term positive results, or simply be unable to identify the failure (Knopf, 2012, p.85 Levy, 1994, p.290). Hence, policy failure might result in learning and change 2.ĤIt is necessary to notice, however, that learning the “right lesson” and even learning at all are only possibilities open to political judgement. Facing this new data, policy-makers may learn with it and eliminate, adjust or replace a defective measure. As Thomas Birkland (2006, p.8-9 1997, p.138) affirms, policy failure may lead political actors to identify flaws and create new solutions, generating new information in the political system. See also Birkland’s research on policy learnin (.)ģRational policymaking expects state officials to learn from policy mistakes (Levy, 1994, p.279 Stein, 1994, p.156, p.172). 2 See more on foreign policy learning in Stein (1994).Cet article constitue par ailleurs une contribution empirique au débat sur la portée réformatrice de la politique du président Obama en matière de sécurité nationale en général, et de drogue en particulier, en démontrant que l’administration démocrate continue de donner la priorité au renforcement de l’arsenal législatif et à la lutte contre l’approvisionnement en vue de réduire la consommation de drogue. Une vue étroite faisant la part belle aux réussites tactiques a ainsi fait obstacle à l’apprentissage gouvernemental et au renouvellement de la politique de lutte contre la drogue. Il montre que les autorités ont manipulé l’information disponible de manière à présenter la politique actuelle de lutte contre la drogue comme un succès. Cet article soutient qu’une information biaisée est à l’origine de la réticence à changer de politique, en partant de l’idée que le gouvernement américain aurait dû faire l’apprentissage de ses erreurs et en tirer les leçons politiques qui s’imposent. Tous les spécialistes en matière de politique de lutte contre la drogue s’accordent à considérer l’approche actuelle des États-Unis comme un échec.
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