Carsten Daugbjerg

Reforming the CAP: Policy Networks and Broader Institutional Structures

The article develops an analytical framework to analyse how policy networks and the broader institutional context in which they are embedded influence reform outcomes. The framework is applied in a study of the European Community’s (Ecrsquo;s) agricultural policy reform in 1992. Firstly, it is shown that the EC agricultural policy network led agricultural policy-makers in the direction of moderate rather than fundamental reform. Secondly, the article shows how the broader institutional structure of the EC made radical reform an almost hopeless objective to pursue because the whole decision-making structure allowed the existence of many veto points which could be used to block radical changes. Thus, the article demonstrates that at EU level, policy network analysis is a useful approach in particular, if it is supplemented by a macro-level analysis of the broader institutional context within which networks are embedded. Finally, the article concludes that in the future, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is likely to follow the previous path of moderate reforms.

The Politics of CAP Reform: Trade Negotiations, Institutional Settings and Blame Avoidance

In this article we argue that the conclusion of the GATT Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture and the subsequent role of the WTO has changed the international context of CAP policy-making. However, comparing the three latest CAP reforms, we demonstrate that pressures on the CAP arising from international trade negotiations cannot alone account for the way in which the EU responds in terms of CAP reform. The institutional setting within which the reform package was determined also played a crucial role. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the CoAM seems to be a more conducive setting than the European Council for undertaking substantial reform of the CAP. We suggest that the choice of institutional setting is influenced by the desire of farm ministers and of heads of state or government to avoid blame for unpopular decisions. When CAP reform is an integral part of a broader package, farm ministers pass the final decision to the European Council and when CAP reform is defined as a separate issue the European Council avoids involvement.

Linking Policy Networks and Environmental Policies: Nitrate Policy Making in Denmark and Sweden 1970‐1995

The policy network literature has provided important insight into the way in which public policy is made in Western societies. Most network studies have focused on processes within networks and have paid little attention to the conceptualization of policy outcomes and the theoretical link between network type and policy type. This article defines and categorizes environmental policy and suggests a proposition on the link between network types and environmental policy types. It is argued that the existence of tight and closed policy communities in sectors subject to environmental regulation is associated with the introduction of low cost environmental policies. In contrast, open and loose issue networks are associated with high cost environmental policies.

Consumers, industrialists and the political economy of green taxation: CO2 taxation in OECD

Abstract Economists have traditionally suggested that politicians should simply impose a uniform tax on harmful emissions, as the first-best solution prescribes. However, a detailed analysis of the actual design of green taxes in the OECD reveals that they are differentiated and far from this first-best optimal design. Public choice theory suggests that an important reason that industry as a group, in contrast to households, is capable of lobbying against green taxation. The paper presents empirical findings on CO2 taxation within the OECD countries, which confirm this theoretical prediction. Taxes are not uniform, and households pay a tax rate which is six times higher than that paid by the industry on average. Even when tax revenue is fully refunded to industry, the potential losers (energy-intensive firms) will lobby harder against it than the potential winners (labor-intensive firms) due to small-group advantages. The Norwegian case confirms these arguments. Finally, it is suggested that a CO2 tax may, perhaps, successfully be applied to households, because they tend to be badly organized. As such, a mix of green taxes (in relation to non-organized interests) and grandfathered permit markets (in relation to organized interests) should be considered in the search for cost-effective and politically feasible instruments.

New Policy Ideas and Old Policy Networks: Implementing Green Taxation in Scandinavia'

In the past, green taxation has become a widespread tool in pollution control in Europe. This new type of state intervention is based on an idea developed by environmental economists and diffused internationally through various channels of information exchange. We argue that the idea itself does not inform us about the way in which green taxation is designed because sectoral policy networks influence power relations, which in turn influence the actual design of green tax schemes. Thus, policy networks are the intervening variable explaining why an internationally diffused policy idea is implemented differently in various national settings. This argument is supported by a comparison of pesticide taxation and CO2 taxation in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The role of ideas in public policy-making has been the focus of many studies. Some focus on the ideas themselves as the factor determining the contents of public policy, while others aim at explaining why an idea influences policy contents differently across countries. Our paper uses the latter approach. During the recent two decades, the idea of using green taxation has gained force in industrialized countries. Environmental policy-makers have introduced various types of green taxes to reduce emissions. Earlier environmental policy was based largely on the command-and-control approach, which regulates by the use of standards and which tends to force all businesses to adopt the same measures and practices of pollution control and thus accept identical shares of the pollution control burden regardless of their relative impacts (Andersen I994: 2I). The basic idea of using taxes in pollution control is to put a price on negative externalities to internalize them in production decisions. Although green tax schemes adopted are based on the same basic idea, their specific design varies significantly for pesticide and CO2 (carbon

Curbing agricultural exceptionalism: The EU's response to external challenge

From the launch of GATT in 1948, through to the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations, the niceties of international trade rules had little impact on the design and implementation of EU farm policies. GATT was built on consensus, but powerful economic actors (such as the EU) were to a large extent able to implement farm policies that best suited their perceived needs. This agricultural exceptionalism (a term used by political scientists) had been promoted by the US in the 1940s and 1950s, but was cultivated by the EU (and others) in the 1960s and 1970s. However, dating from the Punta del Este declaration of 1986 launching the Uruguay Round, agricultural exceptionalism has been under pressure and the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture of 1994 (the URAA) did, to some extent, curb agricultural exceptionalism and continues so doing through the WTO dispute settlement body.

Policy Networks And Agricultural Policy Reforms: Explaining Deregulation In Sweden And Re‐Regulation In The European Community

Policy network analysis has been criticized for being unable to explain outcomes and change in outcomes. This article develops a theoretical network model which attempts to explain reform outcomes. It suggests that the success of reformers depends mainly on the policy network type existing in the sector in which they attempt to bring about change. If the network has a high degree of cohesion, then those network members who are subject to reform have power to defend the principles of the established policy. Consequently, only moderate policy reform occurs. On the other hand, if the networks degree of cohesion is low, then those who are subject to reform do not have the power to oppose reformers successfully. Therefore, reformers have opportunities to bring about fundamental policy reform. Differences in the cohesion of agricultural policy networks help to explain why the 1990 Swedish agricultural policy reform was more radical than the European Communitys in 1992.

Ideational Change in the WTO and its Impacts on EU Agricultural Policy Institutions and the CAP

Abstract This paper argues that the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA) introduced the market liberal paradigm as the ideational underpinning of the new farm trade regime. Though the immediate consequences in terms of limitations on agricultural support and protection were very modest, the Agreement did impact on the way in which domestic farm policy evolves. It forced EU agricultural policy makers to consider the agricultural negotiations when reforming the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The new paradigm in global farm trade resulted in a process of institutional layering in which concerns raised in the World Trade Organization (WTO) were gradually incorporated in EU agricultural institutions. This has resulted in gradual reform of the CAP in which policy instruments have been changed in order to make the CAP more WTO compatible. The underlying paradigm, the state‐assisted paradigm, has been sustained though it has been rephrased by introducing the concept of multifunctionality.

Associative Deadlocks and Transformative Capacity: Engaging in Australian Organic Farm Industry Development

Recent work on industry policy argues that group and state capacity are important in underpinning (or undermining) the capacity to govern industrial development. Put simply, group capacity – alongside state capacity – is deemed an important ingredient in any recipe for (re)developing national industry. This article further develops the literature on governance and transformative capacity, adding deliberative networking as a key facet. Examining the development of the organic farming sector in Australia, it is argued that the absence of transformative capacity frustrates development. Specifically, although the state has slowly come to see a need for some interaction and facilitation of organic industry development, particularly of a national domestic standard, this intervention is made difficult by the absence of: (i) capable organic industry organisations; (ii) ‘in-house’ departmental expertise; and (iii) venues capable of fostering policy deliberation. We argue that the reworked concept of transformative capacity can have wider application in making sense of industry development in other infant industries.

Designing green taxes in a political context: From optimal to feasible environmental regulation

In this essay, we argue that to design green taxes which are high enough to have the desired incentive effects, tax revenues must be reimbursed, either by earmarking them for environmental subsidies or by reducing other taxes directed at industry. This would decrease industrial opposition to green taxation. However, in practice, the requirement of reimbursement may be difficult to fulfil because most polluting industries are not homogeneous. This means that reimbursement will redistribute financial resources within industry, creating winners and losers. We demonstrate how green taxation can be used by operating separate tax schemes for each branch of industry.