Ideas, interests, and state policy: Biotechnology policy-making in the U.S. and the EU

The United States and the European Union have taken radically different approaches to the regulation of biotechnology and genetically modified organisms (GMOs). This difference in regulatory policy indicates important differences in the ideas that policymakers in the two states hold about appropriate regulation of cutting-edge science, which have been embodied in each state's regulatory framework. Thus, the research question: why was each particular set of ideas able to influence state policy in the U.S. and the EU? I argue that the structure of each state's political institutions privileges different policy-making actors, whose particular ideas then have greater influence over the policy-making process. This paper specifically examines the ideas promoted by state bureaucrats, public-interest groups, and scientific experts.