Tallberg, Lundgren, Sommerer, & Squatrito: Explaining Policy Norm Adoption by International Organizations

Jonas Tallberg (Stockholm Univ. - Political Science), Magnus Lundgren (Stockholm Univ.), Thomas Sommerer (Stockholm Univ. - Political Science), & Theresa Squatrito (University of Oslo - Law) have posted Explaining Policy Norm Adoption by International Organizations. Here's the abstract:

Recent decades have witnessed the emergence, spread, and adoption of a broad range of new policy norms in global governance, among them sustainable development, gender equality, and human security. While existing scholarship can tell us a lot about the specific trajectories of each of these norms, we know little about the broader patterns and sources of norm adoption by international organizations (IOs). This paper offers the first comparative large-N analysis of the spread and adoption of policy norms among IOs. Theoretically, we develop a diffusion argument, focused on prior adoption of norms among peers of IOs, while also assessing the influence of independent factors. Empirically, the paper maps and explains the spread of eight policy norms across 27 IOs over the time period 1980 to 2015 based on a unique dataset. The analysis establishes that variation in norm adoption across IOs is explained mainly by a combination of three factors: the fit between an IO’s policy mandate and the norm; prior adoption of a norm by IOs in the same issue area; and prior adoption of a norm by IOs with overlapping memberships. Norm adoption clearly involves diffusion, but also strong issue area determinacy. These findings have important implications for research on norms, diffusion, and IOs.