Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T14:31:13.808Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Diffusion Across International Organizations: Connectivity and Convergence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2018

Get access

Abstract

While extensive research shows that policies and institutions spread across states through processes of diffusion, we know little about diffusion among international organizations (IOs). We develop a novel approach for the study of diffusion among IOs. This approach consists of three components: a theoretical focus on connectivity among IOs as pathways for diffusion; a conceptual differentiation between alternative types of convergence effects; and a methodological strategy combining dyadic and spatial analysis of diffusion. We illustrate the usefulness of this approach through an empirical case: the diffusion of participatory governance arrangements among IOs from 1970 to 2010. The analysis shows that connectivity among IOs contributes to convergence, which typically is manifested through imitation of very specific institutional models. The article's findings have implications both for the study of IOs and for the general study of diffusion.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Earlier versions of this article were presented at the 2013 Annual Convention of the International Studies Association in San Francisco, the 2014 Annual Convention of the International Studies Association in Toronto, and at workshops at the University of Göttingen, Lund University, and Stockholm University. For helpful comments and suggestions, we are particularly grateful to Thomas Biersteker, Anja Jetschke, Barbara Koremenos, Gary Marks, Alexander Ovodenko, Duncan Snidal, and the editors and two anonymous reviewers of IO. The research for this article was conducted in the Transaccess project and the Transdemos program at Stockholm University. We gratefully acknowledge the generous funding provided by the European Research Council and Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.

References

Abbott, Kenneth W., Green, Jessica F., and Keohane, Robert O.. 2016. Organizational Ecology and Institutional Change in Global Governance. International Organization 70 (2):247–77.Google Scholar
Acharya, Amitav. 2004. How Ideas Spread: Whose Norms Matter? Norm Localization and Institutional Change in Asian Regionalism. International Organization 58 (2):239–75.Google Scholar
Alter, Karen J. 2012. The Global Spread of European Style International Courts. West European Politics 35 (1):135–54.Google Scholar
Asian Development Bank (ADB). 1995. Governance: Sound Development Management. Policy paper. Manila: ADB. Available at <https://www.adb.org/documents/governance-sound-development-management>>Google Scholar
Betsill, Michele M., and Corell, Elisabeth. 2008. NGO Diplomacy: The Influence of Nongovernmental Organizations in International Environmental Negotiations. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Biermann, Rafael. 2008. Towards a Theory of Inter-Organizational Networking: The Euro-Atlantic Security Institutions Interacting. Review of International Organizations 3 (2):151–77.Google Scholar
Boehmke, Frederick. 2009. Policy Emulation or Policy Convergence? Potential Ambiguities in the Dyadic Event History Approach to State Policy Emulation. Journal of Politics 71 (3):1125–40.Google Scholar
Böhmelt, Tobias, and Spilker, Gabriele. 2016. The Interaction of International Institutions from a Social Network Perspective. International Environmental Agreements 16 (1):6789.Google Scholar
Boli, John, and Thomas, George M.. Eds. 1999. Constructing World Culture: International Nongovernmental Organizations Since 1875. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Börzel, Tanja, and Risse, Thomas. 2016. Three Cheers for Comparative Regionalism. In The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism, edited by Börzel, Tanja A. and Risse, Thomas, 621–48. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Börzel, Tanja A., and Hüllen, Vera Van. 2015. Governance Transfer by Regional Organizations: Patching Together a Global Script. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Brinks, Daniel, and Coppedge, Michael. 2006. Diffusion Is No Illusion: Neighbor Emulation in the Third Wave of Democracy. Comparative Political Studies 39 (4):463–89.Google Scholar
Brooks, Sarah M., and Kurtz, Marcus J.. 2012. Paths to Financial Policy Diffusion: Statist Legacies in Latin America's Globalization. International Organization 66 (1):95128.Google Scholar
Busch, Marc L. 2007. Overlapping Institutions, Forum Shopping, and Dispute Settlement in International Trade. International Organization 61 (4):735–61.Google Scholar
Cao, Xun. 2010. Networks as Channels of Policy Diffusion: Explaining Worldwide Changes in Capital Taxation, 1998–2006. International Studies Quarterly 54 (3):823–54.Google Scholar
Carter, David, and Signorino, Curtis. 2010. Back to the Future: Modeling Time Dependence in Binary Data. Political Analysis 18 (3):271–92.Google Scholar
Chamley, Christophe. 2004. Rational Herds: Economic Models of Social Learning. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Charnovitz, Steve. 1997. Two Centuries of Participation: NGOs and International Governance. Michigan Journal of International Law 18 (2):183286.Google Scholar
Checkel, Jeffrey T., and Katzenstein, Peter J.. 2009. European Identity. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, Ann Marie, Friedman, Elisabeth, and Hochstetler, Kathryn. 1998. The Sovereign Limits of Global Civil Society: A Comparison of NGO Participation in UN World Conferences on the Environment, Human Rights, and Women. World Politics 51 (1):135.Google Scholar
Cranmer, Skyler J., and Desmarais, Bruce A.. 2016. A Critique of Dyadic Design. International Studies Quarterly 60 (2):355–62.Google Scholar
Dingwerth, Klaus, and Pattberg, Philipp. 2009. World Politics and Organizational Fields: The Case of Transnational Sustainability Governance. European Journal of International Relations 15 (4):707–44.Google Scholar
Dorff, Cassy, and Ward, Michael D.. 2013. Networks, Dyads, and the Social Relations Model. Political Science Research and Methods 1 (2):159–78.Google Scholar
Dorussen, Han, and Ward, Hugh. 2008. Intergovernmental Organizations and the Kantian Peace: A Network Perspective. Journal of Conflict Resolution 52 (2):189212.Google Scholar
Elkins, Zachary, Guzman, Andrew T., and Simmons, Beth A.. 2006. Competing for Capital: The Diffusion of Bilateral Investment Treaties, 1960–2000. International Organization 60 (4):811–46.Google Scholar
Finnemore, Martha. 1996. Norms, Culture, and World Politics: Insights from Sociology's Institutionalism. International Organization 50 (2):325–47.Google Scholar
Gehring, Thomas, and Oberthür, Sebastian. 2009. The Causal Mechanism of Interaction Between International Institutions. European Journal of International Relations 15 (1):125–56.Google Scholar
Gilardi, Fabrizio. 2010. Who Learns from What in Policy Diffusion Processes? American Journal of Political Science 54 (3):650–66.Google Scholar
Gilardi, Fabrizio. 2012. Transnational Diffusion: Norms, Ideas, and Policies. In Handbook of International Relations, 2nd ed., edited by Carlsnaes, Walter, Risse, Thomas, and Simmons, Beth, 453–77. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Gleditsch, Kristian Skrede, and Ward, Michael D.. 2008. Diffusion and the International Context of Democratization. International Organization 60 (4):911–34.Google Scholar
Graham, Erin, Shipan, Charles R., and Volden, Craig. 2013. The Diffusion of Policy Diffusion Research in Political Science. British Journal of Political Science 43 (3):673701.Google Scholar
Greenhill, Brian. 2010. The Company You Keep: International Socialization and the Diffusion of Human Rights Norms. International Studies Quarterly 54 (1):127–45.Google Scholar
Grigorescu, Alexandru. 2010. The Spread of Bureaucratic Oversight Mechanisms Across Intergovernmental Organizations. International Studies Quarterly 54 (3):871–86.Google Scholar
Hafner-Burton, Emilie M., Kahler, Miles, and Montgomery, Alexander H.. 2009. Network Analysis for International Relations. International Organization 63 (3):559–92.Google Scholar
Hafner-Burton, Emilie M., and Montgomery, Alexander H.. 2008. Power or Plenty: How Do International Trade Institutions Affect Economic Sanctions? Journal of Conflict Resolution 52 (2):213–42.Google Scholar
Hollway, James. 2015. The Evolution of Global Fisheries Governance 1960–2010. PhD diss., University of Oxford.Google Scholar
Holzinger, Katharina, Knill, Christoph, and Sommerer, Thomas. 2008. Environmental Policy Convergence: The Impact of International Harmonization, Transnational Communication, and Regulatory Competition. International Organization 62 (4):553–87.Google Scholar
Hooghe, Liesbet, Marks, Gary, Lenz, Tobias, Bezuijen, Jeanine, Ceka, Besir, and Derderyan, Svet. 2017. Measuring International Authority: A Postfunctionalist Theory of Governance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ingram, Paul, Robinson, Jeffrey, and Busch, Marc L.. 2005. The Intergovernmental Network of World Trade: IGO Connectedness, Governance, and Embeddedness. American Journal of Sociology 111 (3):824–58.Google Scholar
International Whaling Commission (IWC). 2006. NGO Accreditation and Participation in IWC Annual Meetings, IWC/58/F&A 3. Cambridge, UK: IWC. Available at <https://iwc.int/index.php?cID=837&cType=document>..>Google Scholar
Jetschke, Anja, and Murray, Philomena. 2012. Diffusing Regional Integration: The EU and Southeast Asia. West European Politics 35 (1):174–91.Google Scholar
Johnson, Tana. 2014. Organizational Progeny: Why Governments Are Losing Control over the Proliferating Structures of Global Governance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jönsson, Christer. 1986. Interorganization Theory and International Organization. International Studies Quarterly 30 (1):3957.Google Scholar
Jupille, Joseph, Snidal, Duncan, and Mattli, Walter. 2013. Institutional Choice and Global Commerce. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kahler, Miles. 2000. Legalization as Strategy: The Asia-Pacific Case. International Organization 54 (3):549–71.Google Scholar
Kahler, Miles, ed. 2009. Networked Politics. Agency, Power and Governance. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Keck, Margaret, and Sikkink, Kathryn. 1998. Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Keohane, Robert O., and Victor, David G.. 2011. The Regime Complex for Climate Change. Perspective on Politics 9 (1):723.Google Scholar
Kinne, Brandon. 2013. IGO Membership, Network Convergence, and Credible Signaling in Militarized Disputes. Journal of Peace Research 50 (6):659–76.Google Scholar
Koops, Joakim, and Biermann, Rafael, eds. 2016. Palgrave Handbook of Inter-Organizational Relations in World Politics. Basingstoke: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Koremenos, Barbara. 2016. The Continent of International Law: Explaining Agreement Design. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lee, Chang Kil, and Strang, David. 2006. The International Diffusion of Public-Sector Downsizing: Network Emulation and Theory-Driven Learning. International Organization 60 (4):883909.Google Scholar
Lenz, Tobias, and Burilkov, Alexandr. 2017. Institutional Pioneers in World Politics: Regional Institution Building and the Influence of the European Union. European Journal of International Relations 23 (3):654–80.Google Scholar
Liese, Andrea. 2010. Explaining Varying Degrees of Openness in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). In Transnational Actors in Global Governance: Patterns, Explanations, and Implications, edited by Jönsson, Christer and Tallberg, Jonas, 88109. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Paulette, Simmons, Beth A., and Stewart, Brandon M.. 2011. The Global Diffusion of Law: Transnational Crime and the Case of Human Trafficking. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Seattle, 1–4 September.Google Scholar
Maggetti, Martino, and Gilardi, Fabrizio. 2016. Problems (and Solutions) in the Measurement of Policy Diffusion Mechanisms. Journal of Public Policy 36 (1):87107.Google Scholar
Manger, Mark, and Pickup, Mark. 2016. The Coevolution of Trade Agreement Networks and Democracy. Journal of Conflict Resolution 60 (1):164–91.Google Scholar
Manger, Mark S., Pickup, Mark A., and Snijders, Tom A.B.. 2012. A Hierarchy of Preferences: A Longitudinal Network Analysis Approach to PTA Formation. Journal of Conflict Resolution 56 (5):853–78.Google Scholar
Meseguer, Covadonga. 2009. Learning, Policy Making, and Market Reforms. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Meyer, John W., Boli, John, Thomas, George M., and Ramirez, Francisco O.. 1997. World Society and the Nation-State. American Journal of Sociology 103 (1):144–81.Google Scholar
Meyer, John W., and Rowan, Brian. 1977. Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony. American Journal of Sociology 83 (2):340–63.Google Scholar
Minhas, Shahryar, Hoff, Peter D., and Ward, Michael D.. 2016. A New Approach to Analyzing Coevolving Longitudinal Networks in International Relations. Journal of Peace Research 53 (3):491505.Google Scholar
Murdie, Amanda. 2014. The Ties That Bind: A Network Analysis of Human Rights International Nongovernmental Organizations. British Journal of Political Science 44 (1):127.Google Scholar
Neumayer, Erik, and Plümper, Thomas. 2010. Spatial Effects in Dyadic Data. International Organization 64 (1):145–66.Google Scholar
Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO). 1999. Annual Report. Dartmouth, NS: NAFO.Google Scholar
O'Brien Robert, Anne Marie Goetz, Scholte, Jan Aart, and Williams, Marc. 2000. Contesting Global Governance: Multilateral Economic Institutions and Global Social Movements. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ovodenko, Alexander, and Keohane, Robert. 2012. Institutional Diffusion in International Environmental Affairs. International Affairs 88 (3):523–41.Google Scholar
Park, Susan. 2014. Institutional Isomorphism and the Asian Development Bank's Accountability Mechanism: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue? The Pacific Review 27 (2):217–39.Google Scholar
Poast, Paul. 2016. Dyads Are Dead, Long Live Dyads! The Limits of Dyadic Designs in International Relations Research. International Studies Quarterly 60 (2):369–74.Google Scholar
Raustiala, Kal. 1997. States, NGOs, and International Environmental Institutions. International Studies Quarterly 41 (4):719–40.Google Scholar
Reimann, Kim D. 2006. A View from the Top: International Politics, Norms, and the Worldwide Growth of NGOs. International Studies Quarterly 50 (1):4567.Google Scholar
Risse, Thomas. 2010. A Community of Europeans? Transnational Identities and Public Spheres. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Risse, Thomas. 2012. Transnational Actors and World Politics. In Handbook of International Relations, 2nd edition, edited by Carlsnaes, Walter, Risse, Thomas and Simmons, Beth A., 426–52. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Risse, Thomas. 2016. The Diffusion of Regionalism. In The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism, edited by Börzel, Tanja A. and Risse, Thomas, 87108. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rocabert, Jofre, Schimmelfennig, Frank, Winzen, Thomas, and Crasnic, Loriana. Forthcoming. The Rise of International Parliamentary Institutions: Authority and Legitimation. Review of International Organizations.Google Scholar
Rogers, Everett. 1995. Diffusion of Innovations. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Russett, Bruce, Oneal, John R., and Davis, David R.. 1998. The Third Leg of the Kantian Tripod for Peace: International Organizations and Militarized Disputes, 1950–85. International Organization 52 (3):441–67.Google Scholar
Saurugger, Sabine. 2010. The Social Construction of the Participatory Turn: The Emergence of a Norm in the European Union. European Journal of Political Research 49 (4):471–95.Google Scholar
Shipan, Charles R., and Volden, Craig. 2008. The Mechanisms of Policy Diffusion. American Journal of Political Science 52 (4):840–57.Google Scholar
Shipan, Charles R., and Volden, Craig. 2014. When the Smoke Clears: Expertise, Learning and Policy Diffusion. Journal of Public Policy 34 (3):357–87.Google Scholar
Simmons, Beth, and Elkins, Zachary. 2004. The Globalization of Liberalization: Policy Diffusion in the International Political Economy. American Political Science Review 98 (1):171–89.Google Scholar
Smith, James McCall. 2000. The Politics of Dispute Settlement Design: Explaining Legalism in Regional Trade Pacts. International Organization 54 (1):137–80.Google Scholar
Solingen, Etel. 2012. Of Dominoes and Firewalls: The Domestic, Regional, and Global Politics of International Diffusion. International Studies Quarterly 56 (4):631–44.Google Scholar
Sommerer, Thomas, and Tallberg, Jonas 2017. Transnational Access to International Organizations, 1950–2010: A New Data Set. International Studies Perspectives 18 (3): 247–66.Google Scholar
Starke, Peter. 2013. Qualitative Methods for the Study of Policy Diffusion: Challenges and Available Solutions. Policy Studies Journal 41 (4):561–82.Google Scholar
Strang, David. 1991. Adding Social Structure to Diffusion Models—An Event History Framework. Sociological Methods and Research 19 (3):324–53.Google Scholar
Strang, David, and Soule, Sarah. 1998. Diffusion in Organizations and Social Movements: From Hybrid Corn to Poison Pills. Annual Review of Sociology 24:265–90.Google Scholar
Tallberg, Jonas, Dellmuth, Lisa, Agné, Hans, and Duit, Andreas. 2018. NGO Influence in International Organizations: Information, Access, and Exchange. British Journal of Political Science 48 (1):213–38.Google Scholar
Tallberg, Jonas, and Jönsson, Christer. 2010. Transnational Actor Participation in International Institutions: Where, Why, and with What Consequences? In Transnational Actors in Global Governance: Patterns, Explanations, and Implications, edited by Jönsson, Christer and Tallberg, Jonas, 121. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Tallberg, Jonas, Sommerer, Thomas, Squatrito, Theresa, and Jönsson, Christer. 2014. Explaining the Transnational Design of International Organizations. International Organization 68 (4):741–74.Google Scholar
UN NGLS. 2011. Ninth Annual Meeting of United Nations and International Organizations Civil Society Focal Points. Rome, 17–18 October 2011. Summary Report.Google Scholar
Union of International Associations (UIA). 2011. Yearbook of International Organizations. New York: K.G. Saur.Google Scholar
Volden, Craig. 2006. States as Policy Laboratories: Emulating Success in the Children's Health Insurance Program. American Journal of Political Science 50 (2):294312.Google Scholar
Walker, Jack L. 1969. The Diffusion of Innovations Among the American States. American Political Science Review 63 (3):880–99.Google Scholar
Warren, T. Camber. 2016. Modeling the Coevolution of International and Domestic institutions: Alliances, Democracy, and the Complex Path to Peace. Journal of Peace Research 53 (3):424–41.Google Scholar
WEU. 1999. Second Part of the Forty-Fifth Annual Report of the WEU Council to the WEU Assembly. 1 July–31 December 1999. Brussels: WEU.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Sommerer and Tallberg supplementary material

Sommerer and Tallberg supplementary material 1

Download Sommerer and Tallberg supplementary material(File)
File 2.1 KB