Perspectives on Regulatory Divergence

Abstract

The observation that public attitudes towards agbiotech are relatively well correlated with regulatory outcomes does not yet establish the primary relevance of public opinion. Hence, this chapter seeks to review and learn from existing explanations of transatlantic regulatory divergence. There are many strands of regulatory studies, but scholars exploring the politics of agbiotech often employ pluralist and institutionalist perspectives on political science. The former are dominated by politicaleconomic analyses. Within the latter camp, three variants of ‘new’ institutionalism — rational-choice, sociological, and historical — are of particular relevance for the study of agbiotech policy-making.