Communicative Infrastructure and the Global Diffusion of Latin American Food Policy

Front-of-package warning labels on junk foods, first implemented in Chile in 2016, have diffused rapidly despite sustained opposition. This pattern challenges policy diffusion frameworks that inadequately explain how contested regulatory innovations spread. I propose communicative infrastructure-durable channels and routines enabling coordinated cross-national action-as a governance lever in global health policy transfer.

Mixed-methods comparative case study of Chile, Mexico, and Peru using elite interviews (N = 18), document and media analysis (N≈200), participant observation and public meeting transcripts (2019-2025). Process tracing identified causal mechanisms.

Three communicative mechanisms enabled policy diffusion despite industry contestation: strategic frame adaptation aligned policy rationales with diverse political cultures; coordinated counter-messaging provided policymakers with ready-to-deploy evidence to neutralize industry arguments; and, through networked knowledge exchange, national actors shared implementation lessons, enabling later adopters to design robust policies before adoption. These mechanisms operated synergistically as infrastructure, or systems that proved resilient to political turnover, legal challenges, and corporate resistance.

This study extends policy diffusion theory by theorizing communication as infrastructure and demonstrating how it enables diffusion in contested regulatory spaces where traditional mechanisms prove insufficient. Findings contribute to scholarship on transnational advocacy networks, commercial determinants of health, and South-to-North policy flows.