Learning from and Emulating Their Peers: Policy Diffusion in the Courts

Abstract

Many studies of policy diffusion focus on what factors affect a policy's adoption. Few studies specifically test the mechanism and two of the most common explanations - learning and emulation - have not been tested outside of legislatures. While judicial scholars have applied policy diffusion to several types of laws, we know little about the motivation behind why policies spread from court to court. One unexplored area is the relationship between courts. This short article analyzes the two mechanisms most likely to affect peer institutions: learning and emulation. Using network analysis methods on an original dataset of state supreme court citations from 1960 to 2010, I provide evidence that courts are learning from and not emulating each other, but the mechanism is policy-specific.