International policy diffusion at the systemic level: Linking micro patterns to macro dynamism

Taku Yukawa, Iku Yoshimoto and Susumu Yamakage
Additional contact information
Taku Yukawa: Osaka School of International Public Policy, Osaka University, Japan
Iku Yoshimoto: Department of Political Science, Ohio State University, USA
Susumu Yamakage: Graduate School of International Politics, Economics and Communication, Aoyama Gakuin University, Japan

Journal of Theoretical Politics, 2014, vol. 26, issue 2, 177-196

Abstract: This article tries to identify the conditions under which international policy diffusion occurs, focusing on networks among states. In the existing policy diffusion literature, ‘networks’ have recently attracted the attention of scholars. Using Agent-Based Simulation, we consider the question of whether a new policy diffuses more widely in a community with dense networks or in a community with sparse networks. Our results show that denser networks do not always lead to more diffusion. Moreover, we find that ‘network structure’, namely whether easily affected states are connected to innovators, greatly determines the outcome of policy diffusion. Conducting a deductive thought-experiment rather than inductive (mainly statistical) analysis, our research presents a counter-intuitive result concerning the effects of network density on policy diffusion. In addition, we make a contribution to the methodology of international relations by attempting to bridge the unit- and system-levels.

Keywords: Agent-based simulation; network analysis; policy diffusion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0951629813493213 (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:jothpo:v:26:y:2014:i:2:p:177-196

DOI: 10.1177/0951629813493213

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Theoretical Politics
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().