This dissertation proposes an historical-institutionalist framework for understanding regional
governance issues in general and North American governance in particular. Using digitalcopyright
reform as a test issue, it demonstrates that regional institutionalization can preserve
differences and does not necessarily lead to regional policy convergence. This conclusion
emerges from historical institutionalism’s focus on understanding the interaction of the
policy-relevant ideas, institutions and interests shaping a region, no matter on what “level”
they may be located. Regional governance processes must be understood within their own
particular historical contexts. This approach allows the researcher to account for relevant
influences that are either downplayed or ignored in other approaches to regionalism.
With respect to copyright, this dissertation finds that U.S. digital-copyright policy is shaped
decisively by its own domestic ideas, institutions and interests, with international and
regional factors playing a minimal role. For Canada and Mexico, while the United States has
attempted to influence copyright reform in its neighbours, both countries’ copyright policies
continue to be influenced significantly by domestic factors, and both countries continue to
display significant copyright-policy autonomy. U.S. ability to influence its neighbours is
constrained by the North American Free Trade Agreement’s (NAFTA) guarantee of market
access, which limits the U.S. ability to link copyright reform to improved access to its
market, suggesting that NAFTA’s rules play a role in maintaining policy autonomy and
reducing the potential for policy convergence.