Seeking Peace in El Salvador: The Struggle to Reconstruct a Nation at the End of the Cold War by Diana Villiers Negroponte (review)
American scholars since democratization. Chapter 1 highlights some of the unique and important institutional and historical circumstances that created an opportunity for innovative policy at the subnational level. Sugiyama then takes a more theoretical turn in chapter 2, examining the specific debates on policy diffusion. The author does not situate herself within what has been referred to as Weyland’s (2006) mid-level theorizing; instead, Sugiyama advocates a more normative framework where ideology (here defined as decisions driven by abstract maxims regardless of self or other; p. 36) and social networks (defined as professionalized ideologically neutral “weak” ties; p. 40) are an influential part of the story of why mayors chose to adopt social programs designed for other cities. Following a quantitatively rich chapter 3 that is not destined for all readers, chapters 4 and 5 make this book. These chapters offer richly nuanced detail through the process of tracing exactly where and when these two ideas originated, the actors involved, and how—and why—they so successfully spread across Brazil. The contrast between the relatively simple idea behind Bolsa Escola, where the ideology of the actors involved clearly mattered in its gradual spread, with the more complicated ideas behind Programa Saúde da Família, where social and professional networks had a clear role within its slow start and rapid diffusion, is wonderfully executed.