ABSTRACT
In nitrate policy making, Danish farmers were more successful in transferring the principle of state responsibility to nitrate policy making than their Swedish colleagues who had to accept that the polluter pays principle came to play an important role. As a result, the Danish nitrate policy is a low cost policy whereas the Swedish is a high cost policy. This chapter examines the cohesion of agricultural policy networks in Denmark, Sweden and the EC to test whether or not the policy network model, and provides a meso-level explanation of the variation in policy choices. For the model to be externally valid, the empirical examination must show that the degree of cohesion of the agricultural policy networks in Denmark and the EC is higher than in Sweden. The chapter provides further evidence for the model which argues that the structures of policy networks have important influence upon the policy preferences of agricultural authorities and state actors in general.
