The secret life-changes of norms: A comprehensive analysis of norm change

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Research focusing on international norms has grown substantially over the course of the last three decades. While scholars have produced a tremendous number of insights, surprisingly few generalizable results have been generated. This is because norm research relies overwhelmingly on comparative or case studies. Such studies are precision instruments that analyze the change of a single norm and tend to restrict investigations to a specific policy field, which prevents generalization. As a result, the study of international norms is akin to studies of war prior to the development of larger datasets. Until datasets were available, researchers were unaware of certain empirical patterns that today form crucial research projects, e.g. the democratic peace or dangerous dyads. In short, current norm research may not even be aware of what is unknown. The main obstacle to remedying this situation is the lack of a large dataset recording information on norms; this makes it impossible to reliably identify potentially empirical patterns. Therefore, this project will aim to address this shortfall. It will break new ground by developing the Norm Dynamic Database, which records norm changes across time and several policy fields. This will facilitate the identification of patterns of norm change yet unknown and open the door to quantitative norm research. Moreover, it will facilitate the development and testing of more-general theories of norm change that hold over time and across and within policy fields. The project is of importance for the following reasons: (1) Due to a lack of systematic data, patterns of norm change cannot be identified or investigated. In other words, norm research is not even aware of what is unknown. (2) It moves beyond the limitations of current norm research towards quantitative norm research. The project will overcome the lack of systematic data in norm research by developing a dataset. (3) Similar to other International Relations-subfields, such as the study of war, the identification of new patterns will trigger new theoretical thinking (e.g. steps to war theory) and even has the potential to create new subfields of research (e.g. democratic peace). The project seeks to push the existing boundaries by presenting a general theory of norm change over time and across and within policy areas. (4) The careful conceptualization of norm change by focusing on individual characteristics enables the determination of which parts of a norm are subject to more frequent change or which characteristics make norms more robust and flexible. Such knowledge may inform future strategies as well as policy-makers and practitioners.