Law without borders: Global socialization and the adoption of policy frameworks in Ecuador

This dissertation examines the process by which globalization and transnational legal trends influence domestic law and policymaking in developing countries. Existing literature ascertains that global models predominantly shape policy choices around the world; this literature is mainly comparative and quantitative, excluding contextualized research on the processes of influence. This dissertation aims at contributing to this body of knowledge through a qualitative case study of two policies---Access to Information, and Tobacco Control---recently adopted by one developing nation, Ecuador. The dissertation starts from the argument that these laws originated at the global level, fleshing out the adoption process by testing hypotheses to determine if it was motivated by the global socialization of policymakers, by the internalization of the normative value of the laws, or by the imposition of legal reforms by outside actors.; Complementarily, it explores the role that globally-originated laws---such as these two---have in the promotion of domestic social change by advancing their normative contents. This portion of the dissertation draws on literature about the on-the-ground fate of the law, describing, first, the instrumental impacts of these statutes, and, second, probing into their symbolic effects by investigating the ways and the extent to which these laws have modified attitudes, and whether domestic actors have relied on them to advance their agendas and goals even in the absence of a strong domestic social foundation for their adoption.