IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/poango/v8y2020i1p325-335.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Selective Politicization of Transatlantic Trade Negotiations

Author

Listed:
  • Aukje van Loon

    (Chair of International Politics, Faculty of Social Science, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany)

Abstract

European Union (EU) trade policy is in the spotlight. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations triggered substantial public mobilization which emerged in a surge of literature on trade politicization. Notwithstanding politicization’s topicality and significance, it varies considerably over time, across trade agreements negotiations as well as across EU member states. By picking up on the latter, this article examines why, despite similar economic benefits potentially to be gained from trade liberalization, TTIP negotiations revealed striking differences in politicization in Germany and the UK. Understanding this variation is illustrated by highlighting the impact of some of TTIPs’ substantial issues mobilizing a range of materially and ideationally motivated stakeholders, who in turn shaped diverging governments’ trade positions of the countries under scrutiny. In explaining this selective politicization across two European countries, focus is on three explanatory variables, domestic material interests (business associations and trade unions), societal ideas (voters and non-governmental organizations [NGOs]) dominant in these countries’ domestic politics, as well as their interaction with national institutions. For this reason, the societal approach to governmental preference formation is employed which provides a detailed exploration of these three domestic factors, as well as the importance of their interdependence, in shaping the TTIP positions of the UK and German governments.

Suggested Citation

  • Aukje van Loon, 2020. "The Selective Politicization of Transatlantic Trade Negotiations," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 325-335.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v:8:y:2020:i:1:p:325-335
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/2608
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andreas Dür & Hubert Zimmermann, 2007. "Introduction: The EU in International Trade Negotiations," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(4), pages 771-787, November.
    2. Sophie Meunier & Christilla Roederer-Rynning, 2020. "Missing in Action? France and the Politicization of Trade and Investment Agreements," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 312-324.
    3. Dirk De Bièvre & Arlo Poletti, 2020. "Towards Explaining Varying Degrees of Politicization of EU Trade Agreement Negotiations," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 243-253.
    4. Andreas Jungherr & Matthias Mader & Harald Schoen & Alexander Wuttke, 2018. "Context-driven attitude formation: the difference between supporting free trade in the abstract and supporting specific trade agreements," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(2), pages 215-242, March.
    5. Fioretos, Orfeo, 2011. "Historical Institutionalism in International Relations," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 65(2), pages 367-399, April.
    6. Andreas Dür & Hubert Zimmermann, 2007. "Introduction: The EU in International Trade Negotiations," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45, pages 771-787, November.
    7. Moravcsik, Andrew, 1997. "Taking Preferences Seriously: A Liberal Theory of International Politics," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 51(4), pages 513-553, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dirk De Bièvre & Patricia Garcia-Duran & Leif Johan Eliasson & Oriol Costa, 2020. "Editorial: Politicization of EU Trade Policy Across Time and Space," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 239-242.
    2. Patricia Garcia-Duran & Leif Johan Eliasson & Oriol Costa, 2020. "Managed Globalization 2.0: The European Commission’s Response to Trade Politicization," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 290-300.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dirk De Bièvre & Arlo Poletti, 2020. "Towards Explaining Varying Degrees of Politicization of EU Trade Agreement Negotiations," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 243-253.
    2. M. Huysmans, 2019. "Exporting protection: EU trade agreements, geographical indications, and gastronationalism," Working Papers 19-26, Utrecht School of Economics.
    3. Alex Andrione‐Moylan & Pieter de Wilde & Kolja Raube, 2023. "Varieties of EU trade politicisation in EU public debates," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 14(S3), pages 19-29, July.
    4. Dirk De Bièvre & Patricia Garcia-Duran & Leif Johan Eliasson & Oriol Costa, 2020. "Editorial: Politicization of EU Trade Policy Across Time and Space," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 239-242.
    5. Hua, Wei & Mitchell, Ronald K. & Mitchell, Benjamin T. & Mitchell, J. Robert & Israelsen, Trevor L., 2022. "Momentum for entrepreneurial internationalization: Friction at the interface between international and domestic institutions," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 37(6).
    6. Magnus Lundgren & Theresa Squatrito & Jonas Tallberg, 2018. "Stability and change in international policy-making: A punctuated equilibrium approach," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 547-572, December.
    7. Andreas Dür & Christoph Moser & Gabriele Spilker, 2020. "The political economy of the European Union," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 561-572, July.
    8. repec:bla:glopol:v:8:y:2017:i::p:62-74 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Jeffry Frieden & Stefanie Walter, 2019. "Analyzing inter-state negotiations in the Eurozone crisis and beyond," European Union Politics, , vol. 20(1), pages 134-151, March.
    10. Anna Michalski, 2013. "Europeanization of National Foreign Policy: The Case of Denmark's and Sweden's Relations with China," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(5), pages 884-900, September.
    11. Vennesson Pascal, 2010. "Military Strategy in the Global Village," New Global Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 3(3), pages 1-43, February.
    12. Matera Paulina & Matera Rafał, 2019. "Why does cooperation work or fail? The case of EU-US sanction policy against Iran," Croatian International Relations Review, Sciendo, vol. 25(85), pages 30-62, November.
    13. Kenneth W. Abbott & Benjamin Faude, 2022. "Hybrid institutional complexes in global governance," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 263-291, April.
    14. Rebecca Adler-Nissen, 2016. "Towards a Practice Turn in EU Studies: The Everyday of European Integration," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 87-103, January.
    15. Mathieu Rousselin, 2012. "The EU as a Multilateral Rule Exporter - The Global Transfer of European Rules via International Organizations," KFG Working Papers p0048, Free University Berlin.
    16. Wolfgang Wagner, 2017. "Liberal Power Europe," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(6), pages 1398-1414, November.
    17. Justin Leinaweaver & Robert Thomson, 2014. "Testing models of legislative decision-making with measurement error: The robust predictive power of bargaining models over procedural models," European Union Politics, , vol. 15(1), pages 43-58, March.
    18. Thiago Lima, 2021. "Brazil’s Humanitarian Food Cooperation: From an Innovative Policy to the Politics of Traditional Aid," Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, Centre for Agrarian Research and Education for South, vol. 10(2), pages 249-274, August.
    19. Akbar, Yusaf H. & Kisilowski, Maciej, 2015. "Managerial agency, risk, and strategic posture: Nonmarket strategies in the transitional core and periphery," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 984-996.
    20. Flemes, Daniel & Wojczewski, Thorsten, 2010. "Contested Leadership in International Relations: Power Politics in South America, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa," GIGA Working Papers 121, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    21. David Lektzian & Glen Biglaiser, 2014. "The effect of foreign direct investment on the use and success of US sanctions," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 31(1), pages 70-93, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v:8:y:2020:i:1:p:325-335. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.