Norway is performing unevenly across its four agricultural policy objectives. While Norway enjoys a high level of food security and is meeting its aim of maintaining agricultural production across the country, both environmental performance and the efficient creation of value added along the food chain are compromised by support policies linked to production levels.
This comprehensive study explores the influence and organization of the Swedish farmers' movement in the 20th century. The first such study of its kind to appear in print, the analysis focuses on the ways in which the movement has represented its members in light of the myriad social, political, and economic changes that have affected its strategy, tactics, and overall position within the Swedish economy. Writing for scholars of political economy in general and Scandinavian area studies in particular, the author both explains the history of the incorporation of the interest organizations of farmers into the Swedish state and fully examines the effect of current reforms that are forcing the farmers' movement to change its traditional structures and ways of thinking. Among the issues addressed by the author are the advantages and disadvantages of the corporatist exchange for the farmers' movement and the important role played by farmers in the electoral politics of Sweden's political parties. Micheletti concludes that vote maximization is an important reason for the concern shown by the parties for the interests of farmers. She further discusses the development of Swedish agricultural policy, the changes in policy resulting from social democracy, and the role played by consumer interest organizations within the Swedish social democratic system. Throughout, Micheletti emphasizes the influence of Swedish political traditions and the prevailing political culture as well as the impact of international developments in the current reform of agriculture in Sweden. How the farmer's movement copes with the changes and the new issues of the environment and deregulation are also a key focus of inquiry.
This book explores the policy implications of growing pressures for economic adjustment in the agricultural sectors of developed countries. It starts by describing the recent history of adjustment in the food and agricultural sector and assesses the current and future pressures for adjustments and their implications. Chapters provide empirical evidence on the magnitude of future adjustment in the agricultural sector under a continuation of existing policies and analyze the factors that affect farmers' ability to adjust to economic change. The book concludes by identifying lessons to be learned from recent reforms and evaluating future policy options.
This book critically re-examines a wide range of policy issues in agriculture, including land, knowledge, credit and physical inputs policy, presenting six detailed case studies from Latin America, Africa and Asia with a detailed synthesis from the editor, Ha-Joon Chang.
The idea of European unity, which the Nordic states have historically resisted, has recently become the foremost concern of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Finland. Christine Ingebritsen provides a timely analysis of Nordic economic and security policies in the wake of the vast transformation of regional politics between 1985 and 1995. The Nordic States and European Unity addresses two central questions: Why did all five Nordic states trade autonomy for integration after 1985? And why do some follow the British pattern, resisting supranationalism, while others prefer the German strategy of embedding their policies in a common European project?Through extensive interviews with representatives of trade unions, government ministries, parliamentary committees, social movements, and military and industrial organizations, Ingebritsen charts adjustments to the idea of a regional system of governance. She highlights crucial differences among these nations as they seek to protect their borders against new security threats. In particular, Ingebritsen shows how the political influence of leading sectors affects each state's capacity to pursue an integrationist policy. Economic sectors are not uniformly affected by European policy coordination, and the experience of the Nordic states demonstrates this difference. Her work shifts the focus of political economics away from enduring, domestic institutions toward an understanding of institutions as sectoral and transnational.
Revolutionary changes in global and European politics have reawakened old fears that Europe will be dominated by an unpredictable German giant. The same changes have fueled new hopes for Germany and Europe as models of political pluralism in a peaceful and prosperous world. In fact, Peter J. Katzenstein explains, the current reality is too complex to fit either expectation. Katzenstein contends that a multilateral institutionalization of power is the most distinctive aspect of the relationship between Europe and Germany. Only the observer who is aware of this important fact can understand why Germany is willing to give up its new sovereign power. Although Germany is larger than any other member of the European Union and plays a crucial role in the economic and political life of Eastern Europe, its power is now funneled through the institutions of the European Union rather than erupting in a narrow, power-defined sense of national self-interest. The empirical chapters of this book explore the institutionalization of power relations between the European Union and Germany, as well as the relations of Germany and the European Union with most of the smaller European states.
Originally published in 1994, this volume brings together a set of essays reflecting the complex political, social and institutional problems encountered by modern states in seeking to manage their agricultural sectors. Drawing on different national and international viewpoints, the essays present original analyses of agricultural regulation in a comparative context. The aspects covered include the roots of the post-war food order; the roles of corporatism, agribusiness and technological change, the challenge of de-regulation and environmental reforms, the introduction of market principles and mechanisms into centrally planned economies and the efforts to forge a new order in international trade.
Environmental values and concerns are meant to be reflected through environmental policy, which is then integrated into mainstream economic and social policy that serves to govern society and the economy in different sectors. Yet effective environmental policy integration has proved to be very difficult in practice and it remains largely an elusive aspiration. This groundbreaking volume presents the first ever detailed examination of EPI at the national policy level, focusing on the key sectors of energy and agriculture within Sweden, a country that is widely recognized as a front runner in environmental management. The authors deconstruct EPI, look at what it means in policy formation and examine how environmental priorities are treated in relation to other political priorities. The final section of the book lays out the major findings and presents key lessons for international application, including institutional recommendations on how to enhance the potential for EPI. Most fundamentally, the book answers the questions of what works for EPI, why it works, and how it can be achieved in practice across sectors. The result is a rich and indispensable guide for all those involved in environmental and sustainable development policy issues.
Over the past four decades the wealthiest OECD economies-in Europe, North America, and Australasia- have faced massive structural change. Industrial sectors, which were once considered the economic backbone of these societies, have shrunk inexorably in terms of size and economic significance, while service sectors have taken over as the primary engines of output and employment expansion. The impact on labor markets has been profound: in many OECD countries more than three-quarters of employment is now in services, while industrial sectors, on average, account for less than one-fifth. This sectoral shift in the locus of economic activity has potentially radical implications for politics and society. However, these implications are only beginning to be understood. This path-breaking book is a systematic attempt to understand the distinct political economy of service societies. It examines how different types of socio-economic regimes manage the service transition, with a central focus on job creation and destruction and the changing characteristics of labor markets, and shows that the economic, distributional, and political outcomes with which it is associated vary across countries depending on their political-institutional structures.
