"Farm conflict in France and the Europeanisation of agricultural policy"

Roederer-Rynning, Christilla. (2001) "Farm conflict in France and the Europeanisation of agricultural policy" . In European Union Studies Association (EUSA) > Biennial Conference > 2001 (7th), May 31-June 2, 2001, pages 37, Madison, Wisconsin.

Abstract

The role of institutional arrangements is analyzed through the case of farm protest in France. Whereas farm protest has often been attributed to local and national dynamics, its connections to the EU's Common Agricultural Policy and international trade negotiations have been manifest on several occasions. Simultaneously, protest raises the issue of change and continuity in farm politics in France. Farm politics represents an exception in the pattern of interest intermediation in France. While comparativists have often singled out France as a peculiarly resilient case of interest group pluralism, farm politics is organized along distinctly corporatist features: it is an exception in the exception. The questions arising are thus the following. Does farm protest represent a critique or the popular arm of agricultural corporatism? And to what extent are changes in the role of protest related to dynamics of Europeanisation and/or globalization?