Friday, July 14, 2017
JWS - Stevenson Lecture Theatre (University of Glasgow)
The paper argues that politicization largely changes the way trade politics functions in Western democracies. Traditionally, economic issues dominated the debate about the merits and dangers of free trade agreements. In recent years, however, politicization has led to bringing different, often times postmodern issues on the agenda. A case study on decision‐making processes in the context of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) shows that organized civil society plays a major role for politicizing the issue of trade liberalization in the EU and for extending the dimensionality of the topic. This in turn brings national politicians under pressure, which makes ratification of such trade agreements increasingly difficult. TTIP is a case which highlights successful ‘resistance politics’, and contradicts diagnoses of post‐democracy. At the same time, it underlines that civil society can exercise blocking powers that may substantively harm international cooperation in the future.
