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² McNamara, Kathleen, The Currency of Ideas: Monetary Politics in the European Union (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1998)Google Scholar.

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¹⁰ Berman, “Ideas, Norms and Culture in Political Analysis,” Comparative Politics (forthcoming).

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¹² On this, see Hansen (fn. 3).

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¹⁶ Berman (fn. 1), introduction, esp. 19–25.

¹⁷ It would be tempting to compare American sterilization policies, which were widespread, with the absence of such policies in the U.K., but the institutional origins differ sharply: sterilization in the U.S. was a state-level policy, whereas it would have been national in the U.K. Comparing British sterilization policy with American immigration policy, however, allows a cross-national comparison.

¹⁸ Andrew Bennett and Alexander L. George, “Research Design Tasks in Case Study Methods,” http://www.georgetown.edu/bennett/RESDES.htm (consulted April 2000).

¹⁹ This standard meets the falsifiabihty requirement.

²⁰ The precise composition of what can broadly be called the eugenics movement is a matter of some scholarly debate. See, in particular, Freeden, Michael, “Eugenics and Progressive Thought: A Study in Ideological Affinity,” Historical Journal 22, no. 3 (1979)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Jones, Greta, “Eugenics and Social Policy between the Wars,” Historical Journal 25, no. 3 (1982)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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²² This point has been emphasized by Macnicol, John, “The Voluntary Sterilization Campaign in Britain, 1918–39,” Journal of the History of Sexuality 2, no. 3 (1992)Google Scholar. It has, however, a certain retrospective ease to it: science rarely moves forward by consensus, and the most politically influential opinion is not necessarily the majority one.

²³ Report of the Mental Deficiency Committee (Wood Report) (London: HSMO, 1929).

²⁴ Macnicol (fn. 22), 429.

²⁵ Wood Report (fn. 23), 83.

²⁶ Macnicol (fn. 22), 429.

²⁷ Parliamentary Debates, Commons, 5^th ser., vol. 255 (July 21, 1931), cols. 1245–58.

²⁸ Soloway (fn. 21), 198–99.

²⁹ Resolution passed at meeting of the executive council of Central Association for Mental Welfare, PRO MH58/103July 8,1929. The association had links with the Eugenics Society, and it was an active promoter of sterilization.

³⁰ Letter from the Mental Hospitals Association to the secretary, Ministry of Health, PRO, MH58/103, November 27, 1931; deputation from CCA, AMC, and MHA, brief for the minister' s reply, PRO, MH58/103, November 28, 1931.

³¹ Macnicol (fn. 22), 430.

³² House of Commons, “Report of the Departmental Committee on Sterilisation” (Brock Report), Cmd 4485, Parliamentary Papers, 1934, vol. 15, p. 611.

³³ Letter from Brock to Robinson about the committee's membership, PRO, MH79 292, April 22, 1932; and Macnicol, “Eugenics and the Campaign for Voluntary Sterilization in Britain between the Wars,” Social History of Medicine 2, no. 2 (1989), 167CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

³⁴ Brock Report (fn. 32), 39.

³⁵ Haller, Mark H., Eugenics: Hereditarian Attitudes in American Thought (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1984)Google Scholar, introduction.

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³⁷ Ibid., 468.

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³⁹ House Committee on Immigration, NA RG 233, 69th Cong., letter from Frank L. Babbott, president, Eugenics Research Association, to Congressman Johnson, March 31, 1927, Committee Papers, Box 341, Folder: H.79A-F20.1.

⁴⁰ Brock Report (fn. 32), 41–42.

⁴¹ Senate, , Report of the Immigration Commission (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1910)Google Scholar.

⁴² Ibid., 9, 22.

⁴³ Allen, Garland, “The Role of Experts in Scientific Controversy,” in Englehardt, H. Tristram Jr., and Caplan, A. L., eds., Scientific Controversies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 172Google Scholar.

⁴⁴ House Committee on Immigration, petitions from the New York and Massachusetts Medical Societies, NA RG 233, 63d Cong., Box 458, Folder: H.R.63A-H8.1.

⁴⁵ King (fn. IS); and Kuhl, Stefan, The Nazi Connection (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994)Google Scholar.

⁴⁶ See, for instance, letter from Laughlin to James J. Davis, secretary of labor, July 30, 1930, in Laughlin Papers Folder C-4–1, Special Collections, University Archives, Truman State University.

⁴⁷ Brock to Robinson, PRO, MH79/292, March 16, 1932.

⁴⁸ Their origin cannot simply be that restrictive immigration policies were easier to adopt than sterilization, as the U.S. enacted policies in both areas.

⁴⁹ Evidence submitted by the Eugenics Society to L. G. Brock's Sterilization Committee, PRO, MH51/228 31100, March 1, 1933, 26.

⁵⁰ Ibid.

⁵¹ Minute, Ministry of Health, PRO, MHS8/104B, January 25, 1934.

⁵² Letter from Young to James, PRO, MH58/104B, January 26, 1934.

⁵³ Report of the meeting between the minister of health and deputation of associations, PRO, MH58/100, May 23, 1935, 2.

⁵⁴ Ibid. See also Macnicol (fn. 22).

⁵⁵ Minute to Miss Sharp, PRO, MH58/10, March 15, 1935.

⁵⁶ Parliamentary Debates, Commons (July 3, 1934), col. 1825.

⁵⁷ Buck v. Bell, 21A, U.S. 200 (1927), 207. See Lombardo, Paul A., “Three Generations, No Imbeciles: New Light on Buck v. Bell,” New York University Law Review 60 (1985)Google Scholar.

⁵⁸ As recounted in Larson (fn. 13).

⁵⁹ House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, Biological Aspects of Immigration: Hearings, 66th Cong., 2d sess., April 16, 1920, 3.

⁶⁰ House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, Analysis of America's Modern Melting Pot Hearings, 67th Cong., 3d sess., November 21,1922, 733.

⁶¹ Ibid., 755.

⁶² Gossett (fn. 38), 297.

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⁶⁴ Kenneth L. Roberts, “Lest We Forget” Saturday Evening Post, April 18, 1923, 160.

⁶⁵ Susan Martin, “The Attack on Social Rights: U.S. Citizenship Devalued,” in R. Hansen and Weil, Patrick, Dual Nationality, Social Rights and Federal Citizenship in the U.S. and Europe (Oxford: Berghahn, 2001)Google Scholar.

⁶⁶ King (fn. 15), 70.

⁶⁷ Macnicol (fn.33), 163.

⁶⁸ Waever, Oli, “The Sociology of a Not So International Discipline: American and European Developments in International Relations,” International Organization 52, no. 4 (1998), 710–12CrossRefGoogle Scholar. We thank Sven Steinmo for pointing this out.

⁶⁹ On this, see McKenzie, Robert and Silver, Allan, Angels in Marble (London: Heinemann Educational, 1958)Google Scholar.

⁷⁰ Notes for the minister, “Deputation on Voluntary Sterilisation,” PRO MH58/1OO, May 17, 1935, 4–5.

⁷¹ Ibid., 5.

⁷² On this, see Berman (fn. 1).

⁷³ Steinmo, Sven, Thelen, Kathleen, and Longstreth, Frank, Structuring Politics: Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, introduction; Tsebelis, George, Nested Games: Rational Choice in Comparative Politics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990)Google Scholar.

⁷⁴ Peter Gourevitch put this point well: “To become policy, ideas must link up with politics—the mobilization of consent for policy. Politics involves power. Even a good idea cannot become policy if it meets certain kinds of opposition, and a bad idea can become policy if it is able to obtain support.” Gourevitch, “Keynesian Politics: The Political Sources of Economic Policy Choices,” in Hall (fn. 5), 87–88.

⁷⁵ Blyth, Mark, “‘Any More Bright Ideas?’ The Ideational Turn in Comparative Political Economy,” Comparative Politics 29, no. 1 (1996), 237Google Scholar.

⁷⁶ As predicted by Peter A. Hall, “Conclusion,” in Hall (fn. 5), 374.

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⁷⁸ Department of Labor, Memorandum, “In the matter of cooperation between officers of States and Municipalities with officers of the United States in connection with the enforcement of the Immigration Laws,” 14 pp., October 1923, 2. Papers of Calvin Coolidge, file 133 (reel 78), Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress.

⁷⁹ At the time of the Brock Committee's appointment, servants at the Ministry of Health expressed the hope that the Brock inquiry, by its specialist nature, would be buffered from the fears of public opinion that a royal commission would face; minute, Ministry of Health, PRO, MH58/104A, March 21, 1932.

⁸⁰ For some of the existing literature on ideational carriers, see Risse-Kappen, Thomas, “Public Opinion, Domestic Structure, and Foreign Policy in Liberal Democracies,” World Politics 43 (July 1991)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Berman (fn. 1), introduction. From the constructivist literature (examining the role of “norm entrepreneurs” in constructing the limits of acceptable and unacceptable behavior), see Finnemore, M. and Sikkink, K., “International Norm Dynamics and Political Change,” International Organization 52, no. 4 (1998), 896–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Lessig, L., “The Regulation of Social Meaning,” University of Chicago Law Review 62 (1998), 968—73Google Scholar. On constructivism as an ideational approach, see Checkel, Jeffrey T., “The Constructivist Turn in International Relations Theory,” World Politics 50 (January 1998)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁸¹ One could think of other examples. The idea of “Europe” has been used (and abused) many times by politicians who embedded their preferred policies in it. Crudely, German and (especially) French politicians have argued that common agricultural policy (which ensures above-market prices for farm products, resulting in oversupply and the exclusion of imports from developing countries), is essential to the construction of Europe; British politicians, governing a country where agriculture is a small concern, have not seen it that way. Less crudely, international relations theorists have argued that politicians invoked the idea of Europe in the late 1980s to overcome “Eurosclerosis” when European integration stalled. In doing so, they overcame the problem of multiple equilibria; that is, if there are many ways in which integration can go forward, and each is Pareto optimal, then how do states agree among them? Ideas—in this case the idea of mutual recognition of goods and services as the foundation of further European integration—overcome the problem by selecting one as “the best.” See Garrett, Geoffrey and Weingast, Barry R., “Ideas, Interests and Institutions: Constructing the European Communities' Internal Market,” in Goldstein, Judith and Keohane, Robert, eds., Ideas and Foreign Policy: Beliefs, Institutions and Political Change (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1993)Google Scholar. See Blyth (fn. 75), 241–44.

⁸² Pierson, “Not Just What, but When: Issues of Timing and Sequence in Comparative Politics” (Paper presented at the annual meetings of the American Political Science Association, Boston, September 1998).

⁸³ We thank Kathleen Thelen for drawing our attention to this issue.

⁸⁴ On environmental conditioners, see Cortell, Andrew P. and Peterson, Susan, “Altered States: Explaining Domestic Institutional Change,” British Journal of Political Science 29, no. 1 (1999), esp. 184–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁸⁵ There is an established literature on the importance of policy failure. See Peter A. Hall (fn. 4), 275–96; Heclo (fn. 9); Walsh (fn. 77); McNamara (fn. 2).

⁸⁶ Adler and Haas (fn. 7), 380.

⁸⁷ The point relates to recent work on struggles over issue definition; politics is about defining issues in the way that serves an actor's ends. Taking the gun control example, if the NRA succeeds in denning gun control as a matter of protecting the American constitution, it is highly likely to check gun control efforts; if its opponents define it as an issue of saving children, the opposite will obtain. See Baumgartner, Frank R., Conflict and Rhetoric in French Policymaking (Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1989)Google Scholar. The eugenic cases highlight how this process of issue definition will be buffeted by exogenous developments; those who wished to define eugenics as an issue of the rights of the individual against oppressive state power saw their argument carried by developments in Nazi Germany.

⁸⁸ Gourevitch (fn. 74); Krasner, Stephen, Defending the National Interest: Raw Materials Investments and U.S. Foreign Policy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978)Google Scholar; Robertson, David, “Political Con-flirt and Lesson-Drawing,” Journal of Public Policy 11 (1991)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁸⁹ Naturally, the whole process can go in reverse: ideas viewed as disreputable can discredit the actors proposing them, while ideas that might otherwise have support become discredited when associated with disreputable characters. A good example of the former would be socialist ideas in the postwar U.S.: discredited by association with the Soviet Union, they brought down any brave soul who publicly advocated them. An example of latter would be appeasement: it has been wholly delegitimized by Neville Chamberlain's naive and clumsy policy toward Adolf Hitler.

⁹⁰ Walsh (fn. 77).