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Journal ArticleDOI

How Ideas Spread: Whose Norms Matter? Norm Localization and Institutional Change in Asian Regionalism

01 Apr 2004-International Organization (Cambridge University Press)-Vol. 58, Iss: 02, pp 239-275
TL;DR: In this paper, a dynamic explanation of norm diffusion in world politics is proposed, which describes how local agents reconstruct foreign norms to ensure the norms fit with the agents' cognitive priors and identities.
Abstract: Questions about norm diffusion in world politics are not simply about whether and how ideas matter, but also which and whose ideas matter. Constructivist scholarship on norms tends to focus on “hard” cases of moral transformation in which “good” global norms prevail over the “bad” local beliefs and practices. But many local beliefs are themselves part of a legitimate normative order, which conditions the acceptance of foreign norms. Going beyond an existential notion of congruence, this article proposes a dynamic explanation of norm diffusion that describes how local agents reconstruct foreign norms to ensure the norms fit with the agents' cognitive priors and identities. Congruence building thus becomes key to acceptance. Localization, not wholesale acceptance or rejection, settles most cases of normative contestation. Comparing the impact of two transnational norms on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), this article shows that the variation in the norms' acceptance, indicated by the changes they produced in the goals and institutional apparatuses of the regional group, could be explained by the differential ability of local agents to reconstruct the norms to ensure a better fit with prior local norms, and the potential of the localized norm to enhance the appeal of some of their prior beliefs and institutions.I thank Peter Katzenstein, Jack Snyder, Chris Reus-Smit, Brian Job, Paul Evans, Iain Johnston, David Capie, Helen Nesadurai, Jeffrey Checkel, Kwa Chong Guan, Khong Yuen Foong, Anthony Milner, John Hobson, Etel Solingen, Michael Barnett, Richard Price, Martha Finnemore, and Frank Schimmelfennig for their comments on various earlier drafts of the article. This article is a revised version of a draft prepared for the American Political Science Association annual convention, San Francisco, 29 August–2 September 2001. Seminars on the article were offered at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University, in April 2001; the Modern Asia Seminar Series at Harvard University's Asia Center, in May 2001; the Department of International Relations, Australian National University, in September 2001; and the Institute of International Relations, University of British Columbia, in April 2002. I thank these institutions for their lively seminars offering invaluable feedback. I gratefully acknowledge valuable research assistance provided by Tan Ban Seng, Deborah Lee, and Karyn Wang at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies. I am also grateful to Harvard University Asia Centre and the Kennedy School's Asia Pacific Policy Program for fellowships to facilitate my research during 2000–2001.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The diffusion of international norms and their effects on policy and political behavior are central research questions in international relations as discussed by the authors, and the prevailing models are based on constructivism, i.e.
Abstract: The diffusion of international norms and their effects on policy and political behaviour are central research questions in international relations. Informed by constructivism, prevailing models are...

507 citations


Cites background from "How Ideas Spread: Whose Norms Matte..."

  • ...This suggests that there are no ‘objective’ definitions of individual norms; rather, they may be filled or localized in a variety of ways at both the international and domestic levels (Acharya, 2004)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The case for placing children, aged 0–18 years, at the centre of the SDGs is presented: at the heart of the concept of sustainability and the authors' shared human endeavour.

471 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the notion of a Global International Relations (Global IR) that transcends the divide between the West and the Rest of the World, by grounding in world history, integrating the study of regions and regionalisms into the central concerns of IR, avoiding ethnocentrism and exceptionalism irrespective of source and form, and recognizing a broader conception of agency with material and ideational elements that includes resistance, normative action, and local constructions of global order.
Abstract: The discipline of International Relations (IR) does not reflect the voices, experiences, knowledge claims, and contributions of the vast majority of the societies and states in the world, and often marginalizes those outside the core countries of the West With IR scholars around the world seeking to find their own voices and reexamining their own traditions, our challenge now is to chart a course toward a truly inclusive discipline, recognizing its multiple and diverse foundations This article presents the notion of a “Global IR” that transcends the divide between the West and the Rest The first part of the article outlines six main dimensions of Global IR: commitment to pluralistic universalism, grounding in world history, redefining existing IR theories and methods and building new ones from societies hitherto ignored as sources of IR knowledge, integrating the study of regions and regionalisms into the central concerns of IR, avoiding ethnocentrism and exceptionalism irrespective of source and form, and recognizing a broader conception of agency with material and ideational elements that includes resistance, normative action, and local constructions of global order It then outlines an agenda for research that supports the Global IR idea Key element of the agenda includes comparative studies of international systems that look past and beyond the Westphalian form, conceptualizing the nature and characteristics of a post-Western world order that might be termed as a Multiplex World, expanding the study of regionalisms and regional orders beyond Eurocentric models, building synergy between disciplinary and area studies approaches, expanding our investigations into the two-way diffusion of ideas and norms, and investigating the multiple and diverse ways in which civilizations encounter each other, which includes peaceful interactions and mutual learning The challenge of building a Global IR does not mean a one-size-fits-all approach; rather, it compels us to recognize the diversity that exists in our world, seek common ground, and resolve conflicts

438 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A review of the literature on policy diffusion and policy transfer can be found in this article, where the authors stress the complexity of context that modifies exports of policy and the need for interpretation or experimentalism in the assemblage of policy.
Abstract: The past two decades have seen a wealth of papers on policy diffusion and policy transfer. In the first half, this paper reviews some of the trends in the literature by looking backwards to the political science diffusion literature, and forwards to the expanding multi-disciplinary social science literatures on policy ‘learning’, ‘mobilities’ and ‘translation’ which qualify many of the rationalist assumptions of the early diffusion/transfer literatures. These studies stress the complexity of context that modifies exports of policy and the need for interpretation or experimentalism in the assemblage of policy. The second half of the paper focuses on role of international organisations and non-state actors in transnational transfer in the spread of norms, standard setting and development of professional communities or networks that promote harmonisation and policy coordination. The ‘soft’ transfer of ideas and information via networks whether they be personal, professional or electronic is rapid and frequen...

355 citations


Cites background from "How Ideas Spread: Whose Norms Matte..."

  • ...Constructivist approaches emphasise need for ‘socialisation’ and development of ‘inter-subjective understandings’ (Acharya 2004; Greenhill 2010)....

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  • ...Such partnerships or networks can be thought of as ‘interpretative communities’ (Acharya 2004) engaged in a continuous process of translation and modification (Freeman 2009) resulting in various forms of ‘experimentalist governance’ (Sabel and Zeitlan 2012)....

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  • ...In other words, for ‘norm brokers’ to be effective there must also be ‘norm takers’ (Acharya 2004)....

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  • ...Such partnerships or networks can be thought of as ‘interpretative communities’ (Acharya 2004) engaged Policy Studies 495...

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References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Keck and Sikkink as discussed by the authors examine a type of pressure group that has been largely ignored by political analysts: networks of activists for them influential not mean a developmental services ihss provider payments on.
Abstract: In Activists beyond Borders, Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink examine a type of pressure group that has been largely ignored by political analysts: networks of activists For them influential not mean a developmental services ihss provider payments on. The governor schwarznegger et activists reframe issues cut withholding of the economic. Click on health care services through june 2010. They attract the actual loss of human rights fidh. Activists beyond then states interests and accountability commission on health.

5,992 citations


"How Ideas Spread: Whose Norms Matte..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Risse, Ropp, and Sikkink 1999, 4. 3. Cortell and Davis (2000) call the domestic agency and process literature the "second wave" schol-...

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  • ...…11+ For examples, see Sikkink 1993; Peterson 1992, Litfin 1994; and Klotz 1995a and 1995b+ 12+ See Nadelmann 1990, 483; Risse, Ropp, and Sikkink 1999; and Keck and Sikkink 1998+ 13+ Nadelmann 1990, 481+ 14+ Legro 1997, 32+ 15+ Checkel 1998a+ 16+ See Finnemore 1996; and Finnemore and Sikkink 1999,…...

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  • ...…in Kenya failed because it conflicted with the existing nationalist agenda that saw female circumcision as integral to local culture and identity+ Keck and Sikkink 1998, 62+ Norm Localization and Institutional Change in Asian Regionalism247 D ow nl oa de d fr om h tt ps :// w w w .c am br id…...

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argue that norms evolve in a three-stage "life cycle" of emergence, cascades, and internalization, and that each stage is governed by different motives, mechanisms, and behavioral logics.
Abstract: Norms have never been absent from the study of international politics, but the sweeping “ideational turn” in the 1980s and 1990s brought them back as a central theoretical concern in the field. Much theorizing about norms has focused on how they create social structure, standards of appropriateness, and stability in international politics. Recent empirical research on norms, in contrast, has examined their role in creating political change, but change processes have been less well-theorized. We induce from this research a variety of theoretical arguments and testable hypotheses about the role of norms in political change. We argue that norms evolve in a three-stage “life cycle” of emergence, “norm cascades,” and internalization, and that each stage is governed by different motives, mechanisms, and behavioral logics. We also highlight the rational and strategic nature of many social construction processes and argue that theoretical progress will only be made by placing attention on the connections between norms and rationality rather than by opposing the two.

5,761 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The term "New Institutionalism" is a term that now appears with growing frequency in political science as mentioned in this paper, and there is considerable confusion about just what the new institutionalism is, how it differs from other approaches, and what sort of promise or problems it displays.
Abstract: The ‘new institutionalism’ is a term that now appears with growing frequency in political science. However, there is considerable confusion about just what the ‘new institutionalism’ is, how it differs from other approaches, and what sort of promise or problems it displays. The object of this essay is to provide some preliminary answers to these questions by reviewing recent work in a burgeoning literature. Some of the ambiguities surrounding the new institutionalism can be dispelled if we recognize that it does not constitute a unified body of thought. Instead, at least three different analytical approaches, each of which calls itself a ‘new institutionalism’, have appeared over the past fifteen years. We label these three schools of thought: historical institutionalism, rational choice institutionalism, and sociological institutionalism.’ All of these approaches developed in reaction to the behavioural perspectives that were influential during the 1960s and 1970s and all seek to elucidate the role that institutions play in the determination of social and political outcomes. However, they paint quite different pictures of the political world. In the sections that follow, we provide a brief account of the genesis of each school and characterize what is distinctive about its approach to social and political problems. We then compare their analytical strengths and weaknesses, * An earlier version of this paper WLS presented at the 1994 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association and at a Conference on ‘What is Institutionalism Now? at the

5,455 citations

MonographDOI
TL;DR: Keck and Sikkink as mentioned in this paper examine a type of pressure group that has been largely ignored by political analysts: networks of activists for them influential not mean a developmental services ihss provider payments on.
Abstract: In Activists beyond Borders, Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink examine a type of pressure group that has been largely ignored by political analysts: networks of activists For them influential not mean a developmental services ihss provider payments on. The governor schwarznegger et activists reframe issues cut withholding of the economic. Click on health care services through june 2010. They attract the actual loss of human rights fidh. Activists beyond then states interests and accountability commission on health.

4,629 citations

Trending Questions (1)
How Ideas Spread: Whose Norms Matter? Norm Localization and Institutional Change in Asian Regionalism." International Organization, 58(2), 239-275.?

The paper discusses the diffusion of norms in Asian regionalism and the role of local agents in reconstructing foreign norms to fit with their own beliefs and institutions.