Farm wars: the political economy of agriculture and the international trade regime.
Farm wars: the political economy of agriculture and the international trade regime.
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农场战争：农业政治经济学和国际贸易体制。
DOI：
10.2307/40203731
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发表时间：
1998
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Robert Wolfe
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Robert Wolfe
贝辛斯托克和纽约：Macmillan & St Martin's，xix，235页，US$65.00蒙特利尔&金斯顿ON：McGill-Queen's University Press，xv，282页，49.95美元这两本书对农业贸易政治学的文献做出了重要贡献，每本书都强调了这一主题的不同方面。罗伯特·沃尔夫的书讨论了在20世纪80年代的"农场战争"中达到顶峰的国际紧张局势，以及关税及贸易总协定（关贸总协定）乌拉圭回合在实现休战方面的作用。沃尔夫不仅对农业贸易关系，而且对一般贸易关系进行了令人信服的分析，并考察了农业战争对欠发达国家和工业国家的影响。他分析的一个主要主题是农业政策和关贸总协定的运作为卡尔·波兰尼的“双重运动”提供了很好的例证。波兰尼在1944年出版的《大转型》一书中指出，每当试图让市场自我调节时，社会就会采取“双重运动”来保护自己。“十九世纪是一个对自我调节市场的信仰程度异常的时期，这种将经济与社会‘脱钩’的尝试导致了大萧条和第二次世界大战等灾难。在战争结束时，有一个“嵌入式自由主义妥协”（由约翰·鲁格创造的术语），它承认促进全球经济开放的努力必须包括缓冲社会免受外部干扰的措施。这种妥协在以关贸总协定为基础的国际贸易体制中表现得很明显。沃尔夫讨论了工业国家的社会问题如何在农业方面特别尖锐，因为农村人口减少，政府发现难以维持农业就业和收入水平。因此，农业在关贸总协定协定中被视为例外，允许各国采取更多的保护主义政策，这并非偶然。尽管农业的特殊待遇多年来并没有对全球贸易体制构成威胁，但沃尔夫解释了为什么最终出现了严重的问题，并在20世纪80年代中期爆发了一场农业战争。在1986年发起乌拉圭回合时，农业被证明是一个主要的绊脚石，只有在缔结了一项农业雅阁之后，才有可能在这一回合中达成协议。根据沃尔夫的说法，农业协议的目标是结束农业战争，为未来的稳定奠定基础。“自由化只有在它是中心目标的必要工具时才是目标”（第144页）。因此，农业协定的制定符合自由主义的内在要求，因为它为农民提供了持续的保护，并允许他们逐渐适应不断增加的农业贸易。尽管沃尔夫关于农业的研究非常有见地，而且内容丰富，但他关于全球贸易的一些说法却值得商榷。例如，他将新的世界贸易组织描述为基于嵌入式自由主义（第104页），并认为嵌入式自由主义是“对我们国际秩序的持久描述”（第146页）。虽然这对于农业等受保护的部门来说是正确的，但有些人会认为新自由主义破坏了许多其他领域的自由妥协。事实上，有人可能会说，波兰尼对“自我调节市场”的提升的警告可能在今天有一些相关性。尽管如此，沃尔夫还是写了一本重要的书，这本书运用了一个基于波兰尼的有影响力的分析框架，加深了我们对农业战争发展原因的理解。安德鲁库珀的书在几个方面对国际政治经济学文献做出了有价值的贡献。首先，库珀关注两个中等强国--加拿大和澳大利亚的政策，从而超越了主流文学对"大国"的关注。…
Basingstoke & New York: Macmillan & St Martin's, xix, 235pp, US$65.00Montreal & Kingston ON: McGill-Queen's University Press, xv, 282pp, $49.95These two books make important contributions to the literature on the politics of agricultural trade, each emphasizing different aspects of the subject.Robert Wolfe's book discusses the international tensions that culminated in the 'farm war' of the 1980s, and the role of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in bringing about a truce. Wolfe provides a cogent analysis not only of agricultural trade relations but also of trade relations in general, and examines the effects of the farm war on the less-developed countries as well as the industrial states. A major theme of his analysis is that agricultural policy and the functioning of GATT provide good illustrations of Karl Polanyi's 'double movement.' In his 1944 book, The Great Transformation, Polanyi argued that whenever there was an attempt to let the market regulate itself, society moved to protect itself in a 'double movement.' The nineteenth century was an aberrant period in the degree of belief in the self-regulating market, and this attempt to 'disembed' the economy from society contributed to disasters such as the Great Depression and the Second World War. At the end of the War, there was an 'embedded liberalism compromise' (a term coined by John Ruggie), which recognized that efforts to promote openness in the global economy had to include measures to cushion societies from external disruptions. This compromise was evident in the GATT-based international trade regime.Wolfe discusses how social problems in industrial states have been especially acute in agriculture because rural populations have declined and governments have found it difficult to maintain farm employment and income levels. It was no accident, therefore, that agriculture was treated as an exception in the GATT agreement, which allowed countries to adopt more protectionist policies. Although the special treatment of agriculture did not pose a threat to the global trade regime for many years, Wolfe explains why serious problems eventually developed which culminated in a farm war by the mid-1980s. When the Uruguay Round was launched in 1986, agriculture proved to be a major stumbling block, and it was possible to reach agreement in this Round only after an agricultural accord was concluded. The objectives of the agreement on agriculture, according to Wolfe, were to end the farm war and create a basis for future stability. 'Liberalization was an objective only to the extent that it was a necessary tool of the central objectives' (p 144). Thus, the agricultural agreement was formulated in accordance with embedded liberalism, since it provided farmers with continued protection and permitted them to adjust gradually to increased agricultural trade.While Wolfe's findings on agriculture are most insightful and rich in detail, some of his statements about global trade in general are debatable. For example, he describes the new World Trade Organization as based on embedded liberalism (p 104) and argues that embedded liberalism is 'an enduring description of our international order' (p 146). Although this is true of more protected sectors such as agriculture, some would argue that neoliberalism has upset the embedded liberal compromise in many other areas. Indeed, one could argue that Polanyi's warnings against the elevation of the 'self-regulating market' may be of some relevance today. Despite this point, Wolfe has written an important book which applies a framework based on Polanyi's influential analysis and deepens our understanding of the reasons why farm wars develop.Andrew Cooper's book is a valuable contribution to the international political economy literature in several respects. First, Cooper focuses on the policies of two middle powers - Canada and Australia and thus moves beyond the mainstream literature's preoccupation with 'the majors. …