Farmers' Interest Groups and Agricultural Policy in New Zealand during the 1980s

Abstract

During the 1980s in New Zealand the fabric of state support which had gradually expanded after World War 2 was suddenly removed. Farmers' interest groups found they were unable to influence appreciably the general direction of macroeconomic policy or to contain the influence of deregulationist policies on agriculture. A political economy approach is used to conceptualise and offer preliminary theoretical suggestions about the changing interconnections between economy and state during the present restructuring crisis, especially the need to focus on the disintegration and recomposition of political constituencies and organisations when macropolicy and sectoral frameworks are dismantled. The changing strategies of farmers' interest groups and related agricultural politics amidst an unprecedented episode of state-sector restructuring in New Zealand over the decade are discussed.