ABSTRACT
Cities, counties and towns ‘created the momentum’ for change at the federal level, as they were early adopters of at first symbolic and later stricter anti-investment and anti-procurement policies against South Africa. The supreme irony is that the local apartheid divestment ordinances likely violated the US Constitution because they infringed on federal powers to regulate foreign commerce and conduct foreign affairs. The theory of ‘transnational advocacy networks’ helps explain how non-state actors articulated an international norm against apartheid divestment and succeeded in altering the behaviour of the US federal government. The apartheid divestment movement in the United States reveals the importance of networks for the diffusion of ‘norms’ or ideas among local governments themselves and with higher-level authorities, civil society and other affected entities like universities and corporations. The similarities among local apartheid divestment ordinances are evidence of network formation among activists and local government officials.
