Why do laws become similar across countries? Is the adoption of similar laws and policies due to factors operating independently within each country? Do countries develop similar rules in response to similar challenges? Or is the similarity of laws and policies due to the interdependent responses that scholars have referred to as processes of policy convergence, transfer, and diffusion? We draw on an analysis of immigration and nationality laws of 22 countries throughout the Western Hemisphere from 1790 to 2010, and of seven case studies of national and international policymaking, to show that policies are often interdependent, even in the domain of immigration law, which scholars have presumed to be relatively immune to external influence. We argue that specific mechanisms of diffusion explain the rise of racist immigration policies in the Americas, their subsequent decline, and the rise of an anti-discriminatory norm for policies. Most striking among our findings is that at key junctures after 1940, weaker countries effectively advanced an anti-discriminatory policy agenda against the desires of world powers. We identify the conditions under which weaker countries were able to reach their goals despite opposition from world powers.

中文翻译：

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他们的法律如何影响我们的法律：美洲移民政策扩散的机制，1790-2010

为什么各国的法律变得相似？是否由于各国内部独立运作的因素而采用类似的法律和政策？各国是否制定了类似的规则来应对类似的挑战？还是法律和政策的相似性是由于学者们称之为政策趋同、转移和扩散过程的相互依赖的反应？我们利用对 1790 年至 2010 年整个西半球 22 个国家的移民和国籍法以及国家和国际政策制定的七个案例研究的分析，表明政策往往是相互依存的，即使在移民法领域也是如此。学者们假定对外部影响相对免疫。我们认为，特定的传播机制可以解释美洲种族主义移民政策的兴起、随后的衰落以及反歧视政策规范的兴起。我们的发现中最引人注目的是，在 1940 年之后的关键时刻，较弱的国家有效地提出了反对世界大国愿望的反歧视政策议程。我们确定了在哪些条件下，弱国能够在世界强国的反对下实现其目标。