Browsing by Author "Saxlin-Hautamäki, Elina"

The present study relates to the participation of non-state actors in trade policy formation relating to the creation of trade rules of global significance. The focus is on the work of the Finnish TTIP-network that is a network of non-state actors working to criticize and resist the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership ('TTIP') currently negotiated between the United States and the European Union. By using the TTIP-network as a case study, the study speaks to the gap within the existing international trade literature with respect to the work non-state actors do domestically in order to influence global trade rules. The purpose thus is to examine how non-state actors influence trade policy making. This question is approached by examining how the TTIP-network has evolved within the Finnish civil society, how it seeks to influence trade political decision making and what are the challenges and constrains it faces when doing so. The present study is an interview-based case study. Seven members of the TTIP-network were interviewed for the purposes of the present study, while the data gathered based on interviews was supplemented to the extent necessary with official publications, media sources as well as other publications of relevance. In the analysis of the data, literature from the area of trade politics as well as political sociology has been of central significance. The study concludes that TTIP-network has influenced trade policy making in Finland by politicizing trade policy making. TTIP-network is thus part of the wider global development in which trade rules are no longer considered to fall to the economic realm of the society but need to be exposed to wider public debate. While calling us to widen our understanding on what constitutes influential non-state advocacy, it illuminates the relationship between agency and structure that are both determinant for trade policy outcomes.