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Details
- Presents the new and controversial theory that laws spread not through networks of technocrats, but through domestic democracy, in public and politicized ways
- Analyzes new data from multiple methodological perspectives: public opinion experiments, case studies based on election campaigns and legislative debates, cross-national statistical analysis of policy adoption and implementation across rich democracies
- Bridges international and domestic law and politics; shows how international law and international norms influence fields previously understood as entirely domestic, including health, family and employment policy
Why do law reforms spread around the world in waves? In the dominant account of diffusion through technocracy, international networks of elites develop orthodox policy solutions and transplant these across countries without regard for the wishes of ordinary citizens. But this account overlooks a critical factor: in democracies, reforms must win the support of politicians, voters, and interest groups. This book claims that laws spread across countries in very public and politicized ways, and develops a theory of diffusion through democracy. I argue that politicians choose to follow certain international models to win domestic elections, and to persuade skeptical voters that their ideas are not radical, ill-thought-out experiments, but mainstream, tried-and-true solutions.
This book shows how international models generated domestic support for health, family, and employment law reforms across rich democracies. Information that international organizations have endorsed certain reforms or that foreign countries have adopted them is valuable to voters. Public opinion experiments show that even Americans respond positively to this information. Case studies of election campaigns and legislative debates demonstrate that politicians with diverse ideologies reference international models strategically, and focus on the few international organizations and countries familiar to voters. Data on policy adoption from many rich democracies document that governments follow international organization templates and imitate the policy choices of countries heavily covered in national media and familiar to voters.
Benchmarks from Abroad provides a direct defense to a major criticism international organizations and networks face: that they conflict with domestic democracy. Even presumptively weak international efforts, such as the development of soft law and best practices, can increase voter support for major reforms. Instead, international and European Union negotiations to establish binding legal obligations can be costly and protracted, resulting in <"too little, too late.>" However, the book also explains how electoral calculations do not favor the spread of successful policies that happen to originate in small and remote states.
Readership: Students and scholars of International Law, International Relations, and Comparative Politics of Public Policy.
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Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: A Theory of Diffusion Through Democratic Mechanisms
Chapter 3: How Americans View Foreign Models
Chapter 4: National Health Services Across OECD Countries
Chapter 5: Health Reforms in the UK, Spain and Greece
Chapter 6: Family Policy Diffusion Across OECD Countries
Chapter 7: Family Policy Developments in Greece and Spain
Chapter 8: Conclusions and Implications
Acronym Table
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Katerina Linos, Assistant Professor of Law, University of California-Berkeley Law School
Katerina Linos is Assistant Professor at Berkeley Law School. Her research interests include international law, comparative law, European Union law, employment law and health care law.
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"Katerina Linos's account of policy diffusion is the first to take voters seriously. She perceptively compares diffusion through technocracy with diffusion through democracy, and in the process demonstrates the power of citizens to use media and other information to join the domestic debate over social policy. Finally a sophisticated and convincing account of policy convergence as though local politics matters!"-Beth Simmons, Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs, Harvard University
"Katerina Linos is both political scientist and legal scholar par excellence. She combines state-of-the-art empirical methods with a subtle understanding of international and comparative law. The result is a book that delivers a powerful message built upon rigorous and innovative empirical research. These pages are chocked full of important insights about the relationship between democratic politics and the global legal order. The Democratic Foundations of Policy Diffusion could not come at a better time-when so many countries are reconfiguring their relationships to international organizations and grappling with the maintenance of effective and humane social policies for their own people."-Ryan Goodman, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Professor of Law, New York University
"When do one nation's reforms-of health care, anti-discrimination, and other domestic programs-influence policies in another? In this path breaking work, Katerina Linos uses opinion polls, case studies, and rigorous statistical analysis to show policies moving across 18 Western democracies, even when domestic leaders claim indifference or opposition to foreign models. Anyone interested in domestic or international politics would benefit from this powerful research to examine how ideologies, economic conditions, and local politics affect domestic choices."-Martha Minow, Dean and Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Professor, Harvard Law School
