Synchronization of National Policies

<p><em>The Synchronization of National Policies</em> shows how it is possible that there is remarkable uniformity in the policies that the nation-states adopt although there is no world government. Mainstream research attributes such global governance to the influence of leading countries to functional requirements created by capitalism and technological development or to international organizations. This book argues that to understand how national policies are synchronized we need to realize that the global population forms a single global tribe of moderns divided into some 200 clans called nations.</p><p></p><p>While previous research on the world culture of moderns has focused on the diffusion of ideas this book concentrates on the active role of local actors who introduce global models and domesticate them to nation-states. In national policymaking actors justify new policies by international comparisons by the successes and failures of models adopted in other countries and by building and appealing to the authority of international organizations. Consequently national policies are synchronized with each other. Yet because of the way such domestication of global trends takes place citizens retain and reproduce the understanding that they follow a sovereign national trajectory.</p><p></p><p>This book will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology world culture theory globalization international relations and political science.</p>