Centre–periphery conflict and institutional development: the significance of North–South relations for the CAP

Abstract

Something fundamental is missing in Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) research: an account of how North–South relations have shaped the institutionalization of this policy regime. This article examines the points of contact between developing countries' mobilization and CAP development over the last 40 years. Several points emerge from this comparative historical analysis. With regard to the CAP, developing countries have acted not as one South, but several Souths. The European Community (EC) has helped shape these Souths through an intricate system of trade and development cooperation agreements. In turn, parts of the South have helped sustain the CAP both as a necessary price to pay for the development of privileged relations with the EC and as a consequence of developing countries' international advocacy of managed trade and preferential trade agreements. Recent CAP reforms attest to the erosion of these historical ties and the deployment of new North–South logics. The article makes a call to place developing countries on the CAP research agenda and concludes by sketching out a strategy for further research.