ABSTRACT
Alone among industrialized countries, New Zealand in the past five years has virtually eliminated the agricultural subsidies which had been sharply increased earlier, when there was a gap between falling market prices and prices guaranteed to fanners. These changes in agricultural policy were facilitated by the fact that they were an integral part of a comprehensive liberalization program affecting all economic sectors. Yet the changes have been so radical as to demand some explanation of how they were politically possible. It can be questioned whether they will be politically viable in the medium to long run, but it is useful to look back over the forces that have brought New Zealand economic policy to its present position.
