Organisational competition and the neo‐corporatist fallacy in French agriculture

Abstract

This article challenges the neo‐corporatist paradigm's explanation of agricultural interest group politics in France. It offers an alternative model that can better comprehend the relevant attributes of this interest group system, a system based on the muffled competition among groups with different policy preferences, all of which participate in a collaborative arrangement with the state. Empirical verification is drawn from the experiences of the 1980s, when the system came under stress after the election of a government of the Left and the reform of the European Common Agricultural Policy.