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Abstract
France is considered a strong state, but French governments have always fiercely defended the interests of French farmers in European and global negotiations. Why would a ‘strong state’ be unable to resist farm lobby pressure? Is agriculture an exception to the French ‘strong state’ rule? This article offers a structural model of varying state sensitivity to interest group pressure, and argues that farm lobby pressure cannot fully explain French foreign policy on agriculture, as governments often go against farmers' preferences and as the level of pressure varies more than the continuity of governmental preferences. From an analysis of the negotiations on the CAP and the GATT in the 1960s and in the 1990s it emerges that ideational constraints played a major role in French obstinacy. The defence of French identity as La Grande Nation, necessitating a presence in world agricultural markets, and the defence of a strong Europe under French leadership as a counterweight to the United States, have guided French preferences without regard to the farmers' positions.
Acknowledgements
We thank the anonymous reviewers as well as B. Lieshout, B. Verbeek and A. Wigger from the Institute for Management Research, Nijmegen for their useful comments.
Notes
1. Original in French. All translations from French by the authors.
2. Community preference is an underlying principle of the CAP meaning that products originating in the EC are favoured over imports from third countries through variable import levies.
3. Archive of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (The Hague) (ArchBuZa). DDI DIE ARA: 1012. Report Agriculture Council, 19 October 1990; Centre des Archives Contemporaines (Fontainebleau) (CAC) 19930192. Communiqué du Premier Ministre, 9 October 1990; CAC 19920056, Conseil agricole, Intervention de M. Mermaz, 16 October 1990.
4. CAC 19920056, FNSEA. Communiqué de Presse, 9 October 1990.
5. CAC 19920056, FNSEA. Lettre de Lacombe à Mermaz, 15 October 1990.
6. CAC 19930192, Conseil des ministres, 26 December 1991.
7. CAC 19930196, Discours Mermaz, 7 February 1992.
8. http://www.vie-publique.fr/discours: 22 November 1992. Interview with Bérégovoy, France 2.
9. http://www.vie-publique.fr/discours: 23 November 1992. Interview with Strauss-Kahn, RTL.
10. http://www.vie-publique.fr/discours: 22 November 1992. Interview with Bérégovoy, France 2.
11. http://www.vie-publique.fr/discours: 27 November 1992. Interview with Fabius, RTL.
12. http://www.vie-publique.fr/discours: 17 October 1993. Interview with Prime Minister Édouard Balladur ‘Sept sur sept’.
13. http://www.vie-publique.fr/discours: 7 December 1993. Conférence de presse M. Alain Juppé et M. Jean Puech; 8 December 1993. Réponse du premier ministre à une question d'actualité à l'Assemblée nationale.
14. CAC 19930195, Audition au Sénat, 30 January 1991.
15. CAC 19930196, Discours de M. Louis Mermaz, 11 April 1991.
16. CAC 19930196, FNSEA. Rapport moral congrès d'Angers, April 1991.
17. Journal Officiel de la République Française (1991). Assemblée nationale, 2e séance, 23 October 1991, 4941.
18. CAC 19930195, 11 October 1991. Note pour le ministre; 28 November 1991. Note pour le ministre.
19. Agence France-Presse, 14 November 1991. La FNSEA demande de ne pas mélanger le dossier du GATT et la réforme de la PAC; Journal Officiel de la République Francaise (1991), Sénat. 5e séance, 10 October 1991, pp. 2773, 2794, 2797, 2801, 2804, 2807.
20. CAC. 19940617, 7 April 1992. Note à l'attention du premier ministre.
21. CAC. 19940617, 7 May 1992. Note pour le Président de la République.
22. Journal Officiel de la République Française (1992). Assemblée nationale, 1e séance, 1 June 1992, p. 1741, 1744, 1747, 1753, 1756; 2e séance, 24 June 1992, pp. 2748, 2749, 2750, 2754.
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