Policy knowledge, collective action and advocacy coalitions: regulating GMOs in Turkey

Abstract

Turkey's biosafety regulations allow genetically modified food to be imported from abroad while prohibiting cultivation in Turkey - a puzzling regime that discriminates against domestic production. This article demonstrates that the making of the regime was the result of competition between two advocacy coalitions trying to recruit influential members and increase their leverage on the decision-making process. In the advocacy coalition framework, underlying the preferences of actors there are complex belief systems which are formed in a context of bounded rationality and significant information costs. This article highlights the importance of mechanisms of differential access to information: information is more readily available to corporate groups which can act in concert by solving collective action problems. Large groups with many small members are at a disadvantage in doing so due to collective action dynamics, and consequently they may adopt the position of rational ignorance rather than active engagement with the policy process.