Publication
Title
Towards explaining varying degrees of politicization of EU trade agreement negotiations
Author
Abstract
Over the last decade, European Union (EU) trade agreement negotiations in the form of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada have been strongly contested. By contrast, many other EU trade negotiations have sailed on with far less politicization, or barely any at all. In this contribution, we assess a series of plausible explanation for these very varying degrees of politicization across EU trade agreement negotiations—conceived of as the combination of polarization of opinions, salience given to them in public debate, and the expansion of the number of societal actors involved therein. Through a review of existing explanations, we show how each of these explanations faces a set of challenges. In the third section, we argue it is useful to conceive of these existing explanations as structural background conditions enabling agency on the part of interest group and civil society organizations. We therefore close by sketching how literature on the relationship between interest group mobilization and public opinion could inform further comparative research on trade policy negotiations, and on politicization of EU policy making in general.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Politics and governance. - Lisbon, Portugal, 2013, currens
Publication
Lisbon, Portugal : Cogitatio Press Librello Publishing House , 2020
ISSN
2183-2463
DOI
10.17645/PAG.V8I1.2686
Volume/pages
8 :1 (2020) , p. 243-253
ISI
000526088600002
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Project info
The Politicization of European Union Trade Agreement Negotiations.
Exploring Conditions for Politicization: A Comparative Analysis of European Union Trade Agreement Negotiations.
Jean Monnet Network on Transatlantic Trade Politics
Publication type
Subject
Law 
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 01.04.2020
Last edited 09.10.2023
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