ABSTRACT This article examines why Singapore and Hong Kong adopted competition law by testing four diffusion mechanisms: coercion, competition, learning, and the Brussels Effect. Using structured process tracing and extensive archival evidence, it evaluates the distinct observable implications of each mechanism. Singapore—often cited as a most‐likely case for the Brussels Effect—adopted competition law only when the United States made it a requirement of the USSFTA. Hong Kong, despite its greater exposure to EU competition enforcement, resisted reform for nearly 15 years and shifted only when Beijing signaled support for a general competition law. In both jurisdictions, firms did not internalize EU standards or lobby for EU‐style rules, and neither regime adopted EU‐type merger control. Competitive interdependence receives no empirical support, while learning operates mainly as an adaptive tool once external pressure is present. The findings refine the scope conditions of market‐driven regulatory diffusion and highlight the political foundations of ‘economic constitutions.’

ABSTRACT This paper investigates how the EU's introduction of binding sustainability standards through the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) constitutes an authoritative claim and how this claim is legitimized. Using qualitative content analysis, the paper examines three interconnected self‐legitimation strategies: (1) framing standards as optimal solutions, (2) framing sustainability challenges in support of standards as the ideal governance response, and (3) positioning the EU as a credible global standard‐setter. The analysis shows that authority is not solely asserted through power, technocratic norms, or appeals to the public interest, but is displaced into the standards themselves. The EU legitimizes its regulatory reach by presenting standards as seemingly objective carriers of authority, while positioning itself as a neutral setter of these standards. This strategy redirects contestation to regulatory and documentation systems that are presented as producing reliable governance results. The paper concludes by assessing the extent to which this configuration enables the EU to consolidate its de facto authority in global forest governance.

ABSTRACT In most political systems, cities are not formally part of national policymaking. However, since they are often responsible for the implementation of national policies, they are likely to seek influence on these policies. Existing literature deals mostly with institutionalized policy cooperation and collective municipal organizations. As such, we know very little about how individual cities try to pursue their interests in national policymaking, let alone the conditions for their success. Documenting early policy influence is difficult as processes are tightly closed. Based on unique access to deep archival material (30,000+ pages) combined with 17 elite interviews, this study shows how Danish cities influenced upcoming regulation of vulnerable social housing areas. Using process‐tracing logic, the study systematically shows how multiple attempts were made by cities to alter new policy targeting “ghettoes.” Not all attempts were successful, but in crucial cornerstones, city influence on policy formulation can be documented. The study contributes to our understanding of intergovernmental relations on national regulation and shows that the exchange of city resources—especially technical knowledge and implementation capacity—is a key condition for successful influence on national policymaking.

ABSTRACT A large body of research demonstrates support for deterrence and organizational justice perspectives in regulating white‐collar and corporate crime. While much of this literature focuses on corporate America, there are nonetheless some established consistencies in “what works” to promote compliance. Parallel to this literature, policing scholars tend to focus on negative outcomes, such as excessive use of force and other forms of misconduct, rather than through a glass‐half‐full lens of compliance. The current paper takes stock of the literature on the regulation of white‐collar and corporate crime, with the goal of extending the lessons learned from corporate America to the context of police organizations. In light of the current legitimacy crisis in policing, the broader organizational justice literature offers a promising avenue for informing better research on compliance in policing, that is, how to get the police to do what the public wants as opposed to reacting to negative events. We recognize that there are inherent levels of accountability present in corporations that are more limited in policing (e.g., federal regulation) but there are still many internal mechanisms and processes common to both organizational settings that deserve more attention by policing scholars. The paper concludes with an overview of theoretically driven and evidence‐based directions for future policing research that may simultaneously inform policy and practice in police organizations.

ABSTRACT The 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the 2020 Covid‐19 pandemic triggered large economic stimulus packages in most countries. While aimed primarily at saving the domestic economy from widespread bankruptcies and mass unemployment, these stimulus packages also offered governments windows of opportunity for pivoting toward decarbonization. Drawing on a new dataset covering 40 of the world's largest economies' stimulus spending during the two crises, this article addresses two questions: (1) Did the allocation toward green investments increase in government stimulus packages from the GFC to the Covid‐19 downturn? (2) What country characteristics are associated with green stimulus spending in each crisis? Grounded in distributive‐conflict theory, we hypothesize that the relative strength of green and fossil stakeholders in the economy is decisive in shaping climate policy outcomes. Consistent with this theory, our empirical analysis reveals (1) a (small) uptick in major economies' net green spending from 2008 to 2020 and (2) that robust green industrial interests strongly predict cross‐country variation in green stimulus spending. In contrast, countries' levels of fossil fuels production did not exert a proportional influence. Notably, our research also uncovers a pattern of path dependency, with countries leading in green stimulus spending during the GFC maintaining this position also through the Covid‐19 pandemic. Overall, this article contributes new insights to the comparative political economy literature on climate change by analyzing how economic recessions affect the energy transition and how economic structures drive cross‐country variation in investment‐based climate policy.