Expanding the scope of multilateral regimes: The Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations

This dissertation investigates the role substantive persuasion in efforts to link a new issue to an existing multilateral regime. The comparison of the services, environment, and labor cases provides limited support for the model's hypotheses regarding the role of substantive coalition building in getting a new issue on an existing regime's agenda. The cases also reveal findings about the unexpected importance of strategic coalition building at the agenda setting stage for the multilateral trade regime. The model posited that a process of substantive coalition building plays a dominant role in getting a new issue on the agenda of an existing regime. Three variables were posited to predict the success of the substantive coalition building process: normative fit, the authority of the community advocating the issue, and the objectivity of their arguments supporting the issue linkage. These three variables operate through the substantive coalition building activities.