The focus of this article is the link between the modern world culture and national public policy commitments. Drawing on world society theory and using data for 193 countries between 1990 and 2020—1411 documents in total—we analyze the global pattern of policy commitments to out-of-home childcare deinstitutionalization. Deinstitutionalization refers to the policy of moving children from institutional residential care (e.g. orphanages) to family-based and family-like care in the community. Using the reports by state parties of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, we find that 85 percent of countries make at least some commitment to deinstitutionalization. At the same time, the data reveal significant variation in the interpretation of deinstitutionalization. We also find that similar policy commitments are underpinned by diverse motives that reflect different normative frames within the dominant world culture—human rights, scientization, and cost efficiency. This diversity does not fit the standard world society concepts of convergence, resistance, or decoupling. We argue that countries can selectively adopt specific aspects of world culture, with important policy implications.

本文的重点是现代世界文化与国家公共政策承诺之间的联系。借鉴世界社会理论并使用 1990 至 2020 年间 193 个国家的数据（总共 1411 份文件），我们分析了全球非家庭托儿机构去机构化政策承诺的模式。去机构化是指将儿童从机构寄宿照料（例如孤儿院）转移到以家庭为基础和类似家庭的社区照料的政策。根据联合国儿童权利公约缔约国的报告，我们发现 85% 的国家至少对去机构化做出了一些承诺。同时，数据揭示了对去机构化的解释存在显着差异。我们还发现，类似的政策承诺得到了不同动机的支持，这些动机反映了主导世界文化中不同的规范框架——人权、科学化和成本效率。这种多样性不符合标准的世界社会融合、阻力或脱钩的概念。我们认为，各国可以有选择地采用世界文化的特定方面，具有重要的政策含义。