Reshaping the policy arena: how the agro-export policy network propelled Brazil within global agricultural governance

Abstract

The article analyzes how Brazil has become an increasingly active voice for liberalization within global spheres of agricultural governance. With the focus on domestic institutional developments, we identify the gradual materialization of an agro-export policy network consisting of public and private actors. We conduct a periodization of the overarching phases of the policy network’s development, from its incipient formation during the Uruguay Round to a high degree of organizational refinement in the new millennium. Through analysis of its external linkages, internal structure, and the distribution of resources, we examine how this network became an absolutely central factor in spurring the offensive orientation and assertive engagement of Brazil within the global agricultural policy arena. We thereby provide a domestically rooted explanation for the rise of Brazil as a central agricultural ‘player’, with the focus on the collective agency capacity of public and private stakeholders