The political power of bad ideas: networks, institutions, and the global prohibition wave

In The Political Power of Bad Ideas, Mark Schrad looks on an oddity of modern history--the broad diffusion of temperance legislation in the early twentieth century--to make a broad argument about how bad policy ideas achieve international success. Schrad focuses on the dynamic interaction of ideas and political institutions, tracing the process through which concepts of dubious merit gain momentum and achieve credibility as they wend their way through institutional structures.