When East Meets West: International Change and Its Effects on Domestic Cultural Institutions

Maags, Christina; Trifu, Ioan

Abstract

Domestic governments increasingly face the pressure to follow policy developments occurring at the international or supranational level. Yet international laws and policies need to be “translated” to suit domestic political institutions and newly adopted policies may challenge or contradict preexisting domestic policies, institutions, and interests. To explore the domestic impact of international institutional developments, we studied the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage and its adoption in four countries (Japan, China, France, and Germany). Using historical institutionalism, this comparative case study sheds light on the effects of the Convention on cultural governance systems in two supposedly different “camps” within the UNESCO: the East and the West. The study argues that it is the interaction and entangled relationship of exogenous and endogenous factors over time, particularly the timing and sequence in which they constrain and facilitate change, which shape actors’ preferences and institutional development at both levels.

Citation

Maags, C., & Trifu, I. (2019). When East Meets West: International Change and Its Effects on Domestic Cultural Institutions. Politics & Policy, 47(2), 326-380. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12296

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 8, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Mar 14, 2019
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2019
• Deposit Date: May 30, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: May 30, 2019
• Journal: Politics and Policy
• Print ISSN: 1555-5623
• Electronic ISSN: 1747-1346
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 47
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 326-380
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12296
• Keywords: International Change, Cultural Governance, Domestic Cultural Institutions, Domestic Impact of International Institutional Developments, Intangible Heritage, UNESCO, ICH Convention, Europe, East Asia, Japan, China, France, Germany, Historical Institutionalism