Regulatory Capitalism as a Networked Order: The International System as an Informational Network

David Lazer
Additional contact information
David Lazer: John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, National Center for Digital Government

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2005, vol. 598, issue 1, 52-66

Abstract: This article conceptualizes the international system as an informational network—where the sovereign units in the system produce and process information, and linkages among units in the system are conduits for information. Building on a substantial literature that documents the diffusion of policies across nations, this article draws on concepts from network analysis to ask a critical question: what governance issues are raised by viewing the international system as an informational network? The author asserts that the core governance challenge is to balance the benefits of eliminating costly reinvention of the wheel, while maintaining continued innovation and minimizing the dissemination of welfare-reducing policies (fads). Increases in the linkages in the system, while improving the availability of information to all actors, may decrease innovation and increase fads.

Keywords: network; regulation; governance; international organization; diffusion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002716204272590 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:anname:v:598:y:2005:i:1:p:52-66

DOI: 10.1177/0002716204272590

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().