The Politics of Biotechnology in North America and Europe

Chapter 1 Comparing Biotechnology Policy in Europe and North America: A Theoretical Framework
Chapter 2 Trade and Human Rights: Inter- and Supranational Regulation of ART and GM Food
Chapter 3 Different Paths to the Same Result: Explaining Permissive Policies in the USA
Chapter 4 The Canadian Knowledge Economy in the Shadow of the United Kingdom and the United States
Chapter 5 A Contrast of Two Sectors in the British Knowledge Economy
Chapter 6 Policy Mediation of Tensions Regarding Biotechnology in France
Chapter 7 ART and GMO Policies in Germany: Effect of Mobilization, Issue-Coupling, and Europeanization
Chapter 8 Accommodation, Bureaucratic Politics, and Supranational Leviathan: ART and GMO Policy-Making in the Netherlands
Chapter 9 Conflict and Consensus in Belgian Biopolicies: GMO Controversy versus Biomedical Self-Regulation
Chapter 10 ARTs and GMOs in Sweden: Explaining the Differences in Policy Design
Chapter 11 Switzerland: Direct Democracy and Non-EU Membership—Different Institutions, Similar Policies
Chapter 12 Regulating ART and GMOs in Europe and North America: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis

Two of the most prominent applications of biotechnology assisted reproductive technology and genetic modification of plants have stirred strong feelings and led to widely varying approaches among North American and European countries. Nor are states always consistent, they might be restrictive on GMOs but permissive of ARTs. In a systematic comparison of these two policy areas, this book adds greatly to our understanding. Theoretically well-informed and methodologically sophisticated, the authors show how different patterns of networks, national institutions, and international regimes explain policy outcomes. In providing this analysis, they challenge common assumptions about an "Atlantic divide" and the importance of EU institutions over nation-state ones. Policy scholars working in all policy areas will find much to learn from this book.