Creating Regulatory Harmony

The Participatory Politics of OECD Chemical Testing Standards in the Making

Bibliographic Data

ID5337085
AuthorsColleen Lanier-Christensen (0000-0003-3100-5149, History of Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume46
Issue5
Pages925-952
Publication date2021-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/01622439211029369
OpenAlexW3192557322
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited31

In recent decades, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has become a powerful forum for trade liberalization and regulatory harmonization. OECD members have worked to reconcile divergent national regulatory approaches, applying a single framework across sovereign states, in effect determining whose knowledge-making practices would guide regulatory action throughout the industrialized world. Focusing on US regulators, industry associations, and environmental groups, this article explores the participatory politics of OECD chemical regulation harmonization in the late 1970s to early 1980s. These efforts were conditioned by differential institutional access and resources among stakeholders who sought to shape regulatory knowledge rules. Facing competing European and US approaches to chemical data-a minimum "base set" of test data versus case-by-case determinations-OECD members chose the European approach in 1980. However, US regulatory politics shifted with the election of President Reagan, prompting industry associations to lobby the US government to block the agreement. Examining the micropolitics of these standards in the making, I demonstrate that while long-term structures advantaged industrial actors, ideological alignment with the US government precipitated their decisive influence. The case illustrates the importance of attending to the distinctive politics of international harmonization and the effects on transnational knowledge-making and regulatory intervention

Citizen journalism · Economics · Harmonization · International trade · Liberalization · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Regulatory state · Sovereignty · Chemistry and Chemical Engineering · Historical and Scientific Studies · Historical Medical Research and Treatments · Law · Public Administration

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