This dissertation investigates why a growing number of emerging-market economies have liberalized controls on international capital movements and financial intermediation. The emphasis is on the role of norms and ideas, which existing accounts tend to marginalize. This dissertation demonstrates how the development of a neoliberal policy consensus in the international system influenced the trend toward liberalization. The aim is to understand how these norms emerged, the mechanisms through which these norms diffused to emerging markets, and why decision-makers complied with them. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods are employed. Time-series cross-sectional data from 1970--1997 are used to show the influence of neoliberalism on capital account liberalization. A within-case analysis of one prominent emerging market---Argentina---is utilized to explore the mechanisms of norm diffusion and norm compliance. The findings indicate that neoliberal norms emerged initially from a network of knowledge-based experts. Upon acquiring bureaucratic power in key international financial institutions and national bureaucratic agencies, these experts then diffused neoliberal norms by teaching and persuading decision makers in emerging markets to adopt them. Compliance with neoliberal norms is found most likely to occur in institutional settings that insulate and depoliticize the policymaking process from societal demands.
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