Policy transfer in Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific: When, how, who, what and from where?

Aid programs often involve the transfer of policies and institutions to developing countries, yet borrowed or transplanted institutions may not suit local conditions. Institutional transfer has been a persistent issue in the history of the South Pacific, ever since the King of Tonga borrowed ideas about land tenure from colonial New South Wales. This article compares attempts to transfer institutions associated with 'good governance': land registration, constitutions, representative democracy, public sector reform and anticorruption. It asks when the transfer took place, who was involved, how it took place, and where it came from, and draws some conclusions about its irrationality.