Reviews/Critiques d’ouvrages Genetically Modified Diplomacy: The Global
Politics of Agricultural Biotechnology and the
Environment
by Peter Andrée. University of British Columbia
Press, 2008.
Innovation is often viewed as the cornerstone of
enhanced firm performance and economic growth.
Such a premise is certainly so within the food and
agricultural industries, where significant research
and development expenditures have led to development of many novel products and processes. In
recent years, development of these novel products
and processes has occurred in parallel manner with
development of recombinant DNA technologies and
the biotechnology revolution.
Nevertheless, concerns emerged that application
of agricultural biotechnologies will have a number of
unintended consequences. Ultimately, such concerns
led to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). However, the
process by which concerns voiced by different stakeholder groups led to a multilateral treaty providing
governance of the trade of living modified organisms
was not trivial. Fortunately, Peter Andrée’s new book,
Genetically Modified Diplomacy, sheds new light on
the efforts that led to the Cartagena Protocol.
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approaches to develop an integrated framework that
takes account of three important concepts related to
analysis of the CBD: organizations, ideas, and capabilities. At the intersection of these three concepts
lies what Andrée terms the biotech block. Loosely
speaking, the biotech block is made in reference to
the actors and organizations that advocated the use
of biotechnology in agriculture. Chapter 2 examines
the development of the biotech block in more detail
and unpacks its role in the context of the emerging
global economy in a post-GATT/WTO environment.
Chapter 3, entitled “The Ideational Politics of
Genetic Engineering,” explores the notions of the
gene, environmental governance, liberalism, and the
politics of risk as they relate to genetic modification/engineering and the CBD. These issues are then
brought together in the context of intellectual property rights and the regulation of novel intellectual
property embodied in agricultural biotechnology.
The latter half of this chapter provides a profoundly
important overview of important issues related to
intellectual property, regulation, and biotechnology and could serve as required reading for anyone
interested in the regulation of innovations emerging
from the agricultural biotechnology revolution.
The book’s introduction provides background to
the CBD and an overview of the analysis that follows.
The book’s primary focus concerns the why and how
questions related to establishment of the CBD, as well
as what implications the CBD holds for the agricultural
biotechnology revolution. The secondary focus concerns Canada’s “place in the global politics of biosafety”
(p. 6). Given the reliance of Canada’s agricultural sector
on international trade, both foci carry significant weight
given the central role of innovation in recent Canadian
agricultural policy (e.g., the Agricultural Policy Framework and Growing Forward).
Chapters 4 to 6 then address the heart of the matter:
the emergence of biosafety concerns and development of the Cartagena Protocol under the CBD. The
chronology of events summarized in Chapter 4 aids in
contextualizing the original positions taken by various
actors in the debate (discussed in Chapter 5) and subsequent negotiations that led to the Protocol (discussed
in Chapter 6). Chapters 5 and 6 are rich in detail and
analysis and aid greatly in illustrating how and why
initial positions changed over time. One strength of
the discussion in these chapters is their reliance on
material Andrée obtained from 26 in-person interviews
conducted in support of his analysis; indeed, this material helps bring these chapters to life.
In Chapter 1, Andrée focuses discussion on a
comparison of Gramscian and Foucaultian approaches to analysis. Andrée then draws upon both
Another strength of Chapters 5 and 6 is the
discussion of the Canadian position related to
biosafety and its malleability at the culmination of
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negotiations in Montreal in January 2000. Indeed, it
is this analysis and discussion that helps the reader
see the process by which policy positions are formulated. Lastly, Chapter 7 provides a synopsis of the
outcomes and consequences arising from the Cartagena Protocol. This chapter touches on a number
of important aspects related to biosafety, including
the SPS Agreement under the WTO and the Codex
Alimentarius, as well as how precaution has been
viewed from both positive and negative aspects.
On balance, this is a thoughtful, well-written
book by a promising scholar. Andrée does an exemplary job of illustrating how policy positions are
established, and the book provides an excellent example of how initial positions held by stakeholders
are malleable in light of disparate positions held
by different parties involved in negotiations. And
while aspects of the book may not be accessible to
those lacking adequate training in political theory,
sufficient depth of coverage enables the reader to
grasp the main concepts underlying the analysis.
A work not mentioned in Genetically Modified
Diplomacy that readers interested in the broad
subject matter may also find of note is Thomas
Bernauer’s book Genes, Trade, and Regulation: The
Seeds of Conflict in Food Biotechnology.
John A.L. Cranfield, Department of Food Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Guelph
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Reviews/Critiques d’ouvrages 515
The Provinces and Canadian Foreign Trade
Policy
by Christopher J. Kukucha. University of British
Columbia Press, 2009.
provincial foreign trade policy. Specifically, new
and existing norms and standards continue to focus
on functional issues and do not directly challenge
domestic regulations or judicial precedent” (p. 198).
Christopher J. Kukucha’s study provides a sophisticated analysis into the dynamic relationship
between the pillars of Canadian federalism and
the domestic trade policy process. He carefully
integrates varying approaches in the international
political economy literature with federalism studies.
In doing so, he successfully bridges two areas study
that are traditionally considered to be relatively
autonomous—international relations and Canadian
politics and government.
The book is divided into three sections. The first
contextualizes the issues under consideration by
reviewing provincial trade patterns and the institutional mechanisms in place for consultation among
varying interests in the international trade policy
process. Part two undertakes a thorough analysis
of the processes and outcomes in several respects.
As noted earlier, the author undertakes a detailed
examination of the role of the provincial executive.
He dedicates a chapter to the role of the bureaucrats
and legislators in the process, finding that with the
exception of Quebec, provincial legislatures play a
relatively limited role. Kukucha also examines the
role of varying stakeholder and societal interests,
noting that the latter has little influence in the process. As significantly, the author evaluates the role
of ideas and ideologies on policy-making in this
field. Though this is a relatively difficult task, the
author does a fine job of exploring this relationship, recognizing that neo-liberalism is only one
of a number of considerations that have shaped the
issues and outcomes of international trade processes.
The last section of the book provides the reader with
two sets of case studies that focus on the provincial
role in international trade policy. One focuses on
the network of relationships among Canadian provinces and American state governments involving
functional issues, and the other examines the provincial role in the NAFTA side agreements in labour
and environment. The discussion is informative
and insightful, providing the reader with a clearer
understanding of the nature and limits of provincial
governments in the policy area.
Kukucha’s study queries the extent to which
provinces have been affected by recent international
trade agreements given that the substantive issues
being addressed increasingly fall within provincial
jurisdiction. No longer do tariffs and barriers to
trade dominate discussions as trade talks increasingly deal with provincial concerns such as natural
resources, labour, and the environment. The book
focuses on the effect of this shift in the nature of
international trade agreements. As Kukucha indicates, one would anticipate that given the change
in the types of issues being addressed, provincial
governments would be increasingly involved in the
discussions as their politics and local economies
would be significantly affected.
The book reaches two important conclusions. On
the one hand, Kukucha finds that international trade
policy remains largely under the purview of federal
decision-makers. Although his research carefully
reveals that there is a large and relatively institutionalized consultative process, provincial governments
play a relatively minor role in agenda-setting or
decision-making unless a particular crisis arises
(p. 80). On the other hand, Kukucha determines
that the country has remained relatively insulated
from the new directions of international trade agreements. As he explains, there is “no current evidence
of ‘significant’ regime-based change related to
The author examines the legal and juridical context for international trade policy issues briefly in
Chapter 2. It might have been useful to undertake a
more detailed review of the constitutional issues at
hand as these might have yielded further insights
into why provincial executives and their respective
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legislatures are relatively constrained actors in
international trade policy processes.
The policy implications arising from this work
are twofold. First, can the federal government
continue to adequately represent the interests of
Canadians in international trade matters that fall
within provincial jurisdiction? While it seems that
the system has promoted Canadian interests relatively well in the sense that the new international
agreements have been limited in their influence,
can this continue? Second, is the marginalization of
societal actors in the making of international trade
policy one that can or should be continued? Do these
movements or groups have more to bring to the table
and, if so, should they be better incorporated into
the trade policy process?
Overall, this is an excellent analysis that will be
required reading for federalism and public policy
scholars alike.
J acqueline D. K rikorian , Department of Political Science and Law and Society Program, York
­University
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Reviews/Critiques d’ouvrages Fixing the Future: How Canada’s Usually
Factious Governments Worked Together to
Rescue the Canada Pension Plan
by Bruce Little. Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, 2008.
Bruce Little tells an interesting policy story. Although the primary focus of the study is the Canada
Pension Plan (CPP), it encompasses the wider Canadian retirement income system of general revenue
and earnings-based public pensions and private
pensions or retirement savings. This is essentially
a financial study, and as an economics analyst and
advisor, Little has presented a balanced financial
and legal account. Fortunately for the reader, as a
journalist he has also enlivened it with the social
and political struggles embedded in the story. In
other words, he has saved the rather dry subject
matter with good storytelling. The book is replete
with behind-the-scenes stories and telling quotes.
It is an enjoyable read.
Little’s subtitle signals his intent in presenting
one of the few successful cases of extensive intergovernmental collaboration in Canada on a complex
and politically difficult policy file. Beginning with
the events of the 1960s, which led to the creation of
the CPP (and sister Quebec Pension Plan), the author
lays out the federal-provincial intergovernmental
dynamics that resulted in the overhaul of the CPP
in the late 1990s.
It is important to unravel the factors that lie in
the path of intergovernmental collaboration on large
policy files, particularly since there is an ongoing
need for progress in many key policy sectors in the
Canadian federation. However, it is a difficult task.
Just telling a good policy story takes a great deal
of time and effort. The factors involved are numerous, multifaceted, and prone to metamorphosis.
Causality is elusive, and the uncovering of “near
misses” in policy development reminds us that the
story could easily have taken a turn and come out
quite differently. Repeated calls for measures to
517
avert the financial “crisis” of the CPP through the
late 1970s to the late 1990s, when it became clear
the money would run out, came to naught until an
intergovernmental deal was struck in 1996.
The reader comes away from this intergovernmental policy analysis with an enhanced
understanding not only of the development of
Canada’s pension policy but also of some policy
mechanisms worth note, particularly collaborative
intergovernmental forums such as a joint (federalprovincial) public consultation process and a joint
investment board. There are also some interesting
claims from the author and the interviewees with
which to advance ongoing theoretical and methodological debates about policy drivers. In reading, I
loosely noted 30 factors that were thought to have
played an important role in bringing this policy
to fruition. The author summarized these as good
luck, good people, good package, and good public
communications, but found the model not readily
transferable for “resolving other federal-provincial
disputes.” I might disagree with that. If you take
Little’s “four broad reasons” for policy success
at their face-value, he is right. It is impossible to
replicate luck. It is notoriously difficult to produce
“leaders” when needed, or even to retain good
people on policy files for a reasonable duration. It
is relatively unusual for pan-Canadian governments
to agree on a balanced policy that accomplishes
clear societal goals. And it is uncommon to achieve
state-society consensus through communication on a
policy decision that requires triage, between shortterm costs and long-term benefits, especially. True,
this success does not sound replicable.
If, however, one reads this policy story using
more of the analytical frameworks of the contemporary schools of both policy analysis and
intergovernmental relations, one sees that there is
something to be learned here about the influence of
ideas, institutions, interests, and relationships on
policy outcome, and the role the dynamic among
them plays in intergovernmental policy capacity.
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While luck and timing are always helpful, good luck
in Little’s analysis was mostly produced through
the deliberate development of financial ideas about
“fiscal probity” and legislative requirements for financial reporting. Good people, while sometimes ad
hoc, were nurtured within—and sometimes wisely
constrained by—our Canadian institutions and the
roles and relationships they encourage, including
those newly developed for public consultation. A
good package was produced by a coherent balance
of ideas, interests, and relationships under the strong
guidance of a committed civil service. And lastly,
good communication was the product of careful
institutional processes backed by a deliberate distillation of difficult choices and a willingness to
force the public beyond its often loosely held and
contradictory policy ideas.
Little does say all of the above, only in a different
framework that he sees as relatively non-transferable
to other intergovernmental policy cases. My point
here is that I see considerable transferability of his
policy study to other policies, particularly Canadian
health policy, when looked at through the lens of
contemporary policy and federalism frameworks of
analysis. (I would have included public administration analysis here, but for space limitations.) Of
course, there is also plenty of room for argument
and critique about causation, reproducibility, and
the narrowing of ideas, institutions, interests, and
relationships, but Little’s contribution is, to my
mind, considerably more than that of a good policy
study of the Canada Pension Plan.
Patricia O’Reilly, Department of Politics and Public Administration, Ryerson University
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Reviews/Critiques d’ouvrages The Role of the Policy Advisor: An Insider’s
Look
edited by Nadia Verrelli, McGill-Queen’s University
Press, 2008.
Expert advice is instrumental to the success of government policies. Governments everywhere spend
considerable amounts of money on eliciting advice
from experts. This book, devoted to the role of
advisors in policy-making processes, is a welcome
addition to the scant literature that offers practical
perspectives on this issue. It is a compilation of
papers presented at a special conference in honour
of Ronald L. Watts, Principal Emeritus and Professor
Emeritus of Political Studies at Queen’s University.
Six panelists from six different countries discussed
the role of experts in policy-making processes based
on their previous experiences as policy advisors. This
book is of interest to both policy- and theory-minded
readers. It offers useful ideas to policy-makers to
improve the way they elicit advice, and interesting
questions to theorists to study by formal modelling.
The panelists and participating members of the
audience considered the following main issues: how
the protocol in which expert advice is sought affects
the effectiveness of policy-making; how the nature
of issues and other factors affect the acceptability
of advice to the government; and how the advisors
should be held accountable for the consequences of
their advice. The book is divided into four chapters:
Introduction, Part I, Part II, and Conclusion. In the
Introduction, the editor, Nadia Verrelli, offers a
concise discussion of the subjects covered in the
book. In Part I, the panelists discuss their experiences as policy advisors and their opinions on the
aforementioned issues. In Part II, members of the
audience raise their own questions and the panelists
respond to them. In the Conclusion, Professor Watts
offers a summary of the panel discussion and raises
some interesting points of his own.
There is more agreement than disagreement
among the panelists. They agree that the best vehicle
for seeking advice (consultancies, think tanks,
519
commission inquiries, or roundtables) depends on
a variety of factors: the nature of the issue (Rudolf
Hrbek), political considerations (Nico Steytler),
the time frame of policy-making (Cheryl Saunders), and so forth. In particular, technical issues
create the least difficulty in the advising process,
while politically charged issues are laden with
problems of conflicts of interest, both material and
ideological. Long-term advising relationships are
more productive than one-shot ones, as the former
facilitates trust and reduces conflicts of interest.
They also agree that the way that advisors are held
accountable for their advice is not directly through
financial rewards/penalties, but indirectly through
its impact on their reputation among peers (Hrbek,
John Kincaid, and Saunders). Steytler also raises the
related point that accountability must be ensured by
transparency of the advising process, even though
transparency during or right after the policy-making
process may not be desirable. The vehement resistance of former US Vice President Dick Cheney to
the mere release of the names of his Energy Task
Force is a salient demonstration of the difficulties
of holding advisors accountable.
One point covered in the book is policy advising
under federal systems, which is especially relevant
to Canada. As pointed out by Fossas, Kincaid, and
Saunders, federalism complicates policy advising,
as there are many legitimate decision-makers and
possibly competing nationalist ideologies. The need
to convince a majority of such decision-makers
and avoid veto by minorities makes it difficult for
recommendations to be adopted. On the other hand,
as suggested by Kincaid, Saunders, and Watts, this
could be an opportunity as well, as there are multiple points of access for experts. For example, if
experts have their ideas rejected at the federal level,
they can still sell them to the provincial and state
governments, which can then be used as laboratories
for these policies.
I want to point out that issues arising in policy
advising have long attracted the attention of economic theorists, myself included. Theorists have
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spent considerable effort identifying ways to address
conflicts of interest of the experts (e.g., diversified
committees, multiple rounds of communication,
and disclosure requirements or lack thereof). For
theorists, reading the practitioners’ accounts offers
valuable contextual knowledge and important perspectives. For example, the panelists emphasize the
role of political considerations of decision-makers
in their acceptance or refusal of experts’ recommendations. However, they put different emphasis on
various aspects of policy-makers’ incentives. Enric
Fossas, by way of a famous quote of J.P. Morgan
(p. 26), argues that policy-makers often use expert
advisors as cover for decisions they would like to
make anyway. This view fits quite well with the
approach most of the theoretical literature adopts:
expert advice is cheap-talk and therefore policymakers are free to choose any policy they desire. J.
Isawa Elaigwu, on the other hand (p. 19), argues that
societal pressure and political will play an important
role in decision-makers’ choices. If theorists were
to take this view seriously, they would then have to
build a model that distinguishes between published
and private recommendations and that incorporates
policy-makers’ career concerns.
The book is billed as “an insider’s look” at the
policy-advising process. However, it does not quite
deliver on this particular promise. The reader cannot fail to notice that the participants offer little
information beyond what is readily available in the
public domain. Details of policy-making process
of which only insiders have intimate knowledge
are few and far between. This is presumably due
to confidentiality concerns, or the unwillingness of
insiders to even sound provocative. This arguably
limits the appeal of an otherwise very interesting
and valuable book.
M ing L i , Department of Economics, Concordia
University
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