MONTPETIT, Eric <br/><br/>
Policy networks, federal arrangements, and the development of environmental regulations :  a comparison of the Canadian and American agricultural sectors 

 -  january 2002 
<br/><br/> Both studies of federations and studies of policy networks have sought to produce explanations for patterns of policy divergence and designs. However, both have evolved in parallel, insights rarely transfering from one to the other. This article reconciles the two types of studies. More specifically, it provides an understanding of the divergent efforts of the United States and Canada with regard to the adoption of environmental regulations for the agricultural sector, which emphasizes the establishment of policy nwtworks through interatctions between past policy decisions and federal arrangements. The american federal structure, when combined with unrelated agricultural policy decisions, shaped policy networks in such a way as to enable to adoption of stringent environmental regulations for agriculture. In contrast, the Canadian federal structure, also in confuction with past policy decisions, prevented the creation of policy networks capable enough to design similarly stringent agro-environmental regulations