The declining exceptionalism of agriculture: identifying the domestic politics and foreign policy of agricultural trade protectionism

Abstract

This paper explores the similarity of agricultural and industrial protectionist foreign policies through an analysis of the political determinants of agricultural producer support in OECD countries. While most qualitative studies of agricultural protectionism assume that it is exceptional or at least in some ways still different, this paper builds on an emerging quantitative literature that finds evidence of similarity with industrial protectionism. The paper enhances first-generation general statistical models of agricultural protectionism in the political science literature by considering political-institutional variables central to the industrial protectionism literature. The results of several cross-sectional time-series analyses suggest that the politics of agricultural producer support conform to general patterns of protectionism in other areas of industry.