Date of Award
Spring 5-2010
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Political Science, International Development, and International Affairs
Committee Chair
Robert Pauly Jr.
Committee Chair Department
Political Science, International Development, and International Affairs
Committee Member 2
Tom Lansford
Committee Member 2 Department
Political Science, International Development, and International Affairs
Committee Member 3
Joseph St. Marie
Committee Member 3 Department
Political Science, International Development, and International Affairs
Committee Member 4
David Butler
Committee Member 4 Department
Political Science, International Development, and International Affairs
Abstract
Agricultural tariffs and price supports are the last bastion of US and European protectionism. While all other areas of commerce have embraced change and welcomed open-market international commerce, agriculture has remained the lone holdout.
The small farmers for whom these support programs were designed no longer exist. Yet governments appropriate billions of dollars annually for the continued support of these outdated programs.
The fact that these governmental agencies resist change, even in an age of economic crises, record national debt, and one of the highest negative trade balances in history, is testimony to American civic indifference.
Public apathy precludes timely reform. While most of the population is unaware of the scope of agricultural price-support spending, or of the trickledown effect it has on consumer pricing, the small groups that benefit from it spend millions annually in their effort to continue to receive billions in aid payments.
This dissertation posits that agricultural price supports are no longer necessary, and that they promote overproduction of certain crops, create artificially high retail costs, and may actually hinder economic progress in some less-developed agrarian societies.
If progress is to be made in the arena of international agricultural open-market economics, the organizational dynamics of the developed nations must first be replaced with institutional oversight through organizations such as the World Trade Organization.
Copyright
2010, John Francis Hays
Recommended Citation
Hays, John Francis, "Global Agricultural Price Supports: The Political and Economic Forces that Drive Unsustainable Agricultural Protectionism Policy" (2010). Dissertations. 957.
https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/957
Included in
Agriculture Law Commons, American Politics Commons, International Trade Law Commons, Natural Resources Law Commons, Other Political Science Commons, Political Economy Commons