Die USA und der EG-Binnenmarkt

The foreign trade decision-making process has been one of the more neglected fields of political science research. In this book, this decision making process, especially with regard to the European Community, is analyzed in light of the U.S." reaction to the EC 1992 internal market project in the years 1985 to 1992. The book will focus on the question: Where and according to which rules is the American policy towards the European Community formulated? The study shows that in this case the political system did not act on behalf of the private sector, but mostly on its own, even having to alert the private sector to be more aware of the potential dangers the EC internal market could present to American economic interests. The relevance of the various actors in foreign economic policy issues is determined by the type of policy issue. The distinction of distributive, redistributive, and regulatory policy-issues was developed by the American scholar Theodore Lowi. In the book, this distinction is further developed to include structural, strategic, reactive and crisis issues. The second part looks at the role the private sector, the Administration, and the Congress play in this decision making process.