This article focuses on the processes of transnational circulation and local reappropriation of public policies. Based on a study of the creation of the Regional Council of Tuscany’s participatory democracy policy, it analyses the local involvement of internationalized experts and the way in which they introduce and involve local reformers interested in foreign references. The alliances built between these experts and the local players contribute to an international spread of this policy. However, the international promotion of this public policy does not mechanically imply its local reappropriation by others local authorities. The particular case of relations between the regional councils of Tuscany and Nord-Pas-de-Calais—which include fact-finding visits—shows how, over the course of interactions and in view of the political constraints weighing on the northern actors, the Tuscan policy does not serve Nord-Pas-de-Calais as a “model” in the production process of its own public policy.