This article examines policy experimentation in the context of policy learning in Canadian cultural policy. Despite the attraction of experimentation to encourage learning and thus improved policy outcomes, much of the literature on experimentation does not give sufficient attention to how it is operationalized in practice. Drawing from a novel dataset based on interviews with key actors, this article focuses on how the governance of experimentation impacts learning resulting from experimentation. Findings ultimately demonstrate that while learning occurred, it was constrained overall by a hierarchical, top-down approach to experimentation. Lessons from this case study can therefore be useful for both policy scholars and public administrations embarking on experimentation or other types of public sector innovation in Canada and beyond.

本文在加拿大文化政策的政策学习背景下研究了政策实验。尽管实验对鼓励学习并因此改善政策结果具有吸引力，但大部分关于实验的文献并没有充分关注它如何在实践中运作。本文利用基于对关键参与者的访谈的新数据集，重点关注实验治理如何影响实验学习。研究结果最终表明，虽然学习发生了，但它总体上受到分层的、自上而下的实验方法的限制。因此，本案例研究的经验教训对于在加拿大及其他地区开展实验或其他类型公共部门创新的政策学者和公共行政部门都非常有用。