Subproject 1:

Institutional, process and situational conditions of the „New agricultural policy“

The development of the European agricultural sector over the last five decades has been highly influenced by state intervention. Thus, agricultural crises regularly turn into political crises. In reverse, each adjustment of the sector to new challenges requires political support. Therefore, subproject one analyses how the institutional interweaving of the German agricultural policy from the local to the global level opens or forestalls political and entrepreneurial opportunities. A growing diversity of interests and actors in the field raises the question how different problem interpretations and policy approaches enter the policy arena and gain support in the actors’ constellation. Tracing the process of the 2000/2001 BSE crisis and the 2003 CAP reform and the WTO Doha round it is analysed if windows of opportunity have been decisive in the process of policy formulation. Opportunity structures and conflict poten­tials will be identified, the potential of alternative governance approaches will be assessed and concrete aims and strategy proposals will be developed.