IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/amposc/v55y2011i3p678-695.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Diffusion through Democracy

Author

Listed:
  • Katerina Linos

Abstract

Many argue that international norms influence government behavior, and that policies diffuse from country to country, because of idea exchanges within elite networks. However, politicians are not free to follow their foreign counterparts, because domestic constituencies constrain them. This article examines how electoral concerns shape diffusion patterns and argues that foreign templates and international organization recommendations can shift voters’ policy positions and produce electoral incentives for politicians to mimic certain foreign models. Experimental individual‐level data from the field of family policy illustrates that even U.S. voters shift positions substantially when informed about UN recommendations and foreign countries’ choices. However, voters receive limited information about international developments, biased towards the policy choices of large and proximate countries. Aggregate data on the family policy choices of OECD countries show how voters’ limited information about international models shapes government decisions: governments are disproportionately likely to mimic countries whose news citizens follow, and international organizations are most influential in countries with internationally oriented citizens.

Suggested Citation

  • Katerina Linos, 2011. "Diffusion through Democracy," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(3), pages 678-695, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:55:y:2011:i:3:p:678-695
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00513.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00513.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00513.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alter, Karen J. & Zürn, Michael, 2020. "Theorising backlash politics: Conclusion to a special issue on backlash politics in comparison," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 22(4), pages 739-752.
    2. Gulnaz Anjum & Adam Chilton & Zahid Usman, 2021. "United Nations endorsement and support for human rights: An experiment on women’s rights in Pakistan," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 58(3), pages 462-478, May.
    3. Greg Chih-Hsin Sheen & Hans H. Tung & Chien-Huei Wu & Wen-Chin Wu, 2023. "WHO approves? Relative trust, the WHO, and China’s COVID-19 vaccines," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 499-521, July.
    4. Bradford, Anu, 2015. "Exporting standards: The externalization of the EU's regulatory power via markets," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 158-173.
    5. Christopher, Gandrud, 2011. "Competing risks analysis and deposit insurance governance convergence," MPRA Paper 36087, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Neumayer, Eric & Plümper, Thomas, 2016. "W," Political Science Research and Methods, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(1), pages 175-193, January.
    7. Kevin L. Cope, 2023. "Measuring law's normative force," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(4), pages 1005-1044, December.
    8. Jodi L. Short, 2021. "The politics of regulatory enforcement and compliance: Theorizing and operationalizing political influences," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(3), pages 653-685, July.
    9. Ondetti, Gabriel, 2024. "Diffusion without Implementation: The social function of property in Latin America," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    10. Tracey Freiberg, 2019. "Effects of Care Leave and Family Social Policy: Spotlight on the United States," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 78(4), pages 1009-1037, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:55:y:2011:i:3:p:678-695. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1540-5907 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.