Safeguards and Profits: Civilian Nuclear Exports, Neo-Marxism, and the Statist Approach

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to appraise the explanatory capacities of the Statist model and of structural Marxism-amended and elaborated here-as applied to the issue area of the regulation of civilian trade in sensitive nuclear facilities and fuel. During periods of 'happy convergence' between the interests of state managers and of pertinent societal groups, many scholars find little to chose between the two models. In moments of 'policy crisis' however, we find that structural Marxism provides the better account of the dynamics of conflict over policy formulation. The article indicates that the revised structural Marxist model warrants further applications in a limited but highly crucial set of policy problems which exhibit the characteristics of 'crisis' described herein.