| This dissertation presents a sociological explanation for cross-national variation in intellectual property regimes (IPRs) based on a comparative-historical analysis of South American soybean agriculture. Around 1980, the U.S. government initiated a global upward ratchet of IP protection, demanding from countries reforms that increased the scope and strength of IP rights. In agriculture, this meant strengthening the rights of owners and curtailing the rights of users of plant varieties. Brazil and Paraguay have followed this trend, with the right of rural producers to save seeds from their own fields for future cultivation being restricted. In contrast, Argentina has maintained weaker protection for IP rights on plant varieties, with rural producers retaining that right. This dissertation shows that cross-national variation in IPRs can be explained as a historically-specific process of institutional change embedded in competitive and cooperative relations between the state, knowledge-users and knowledge-owners within and across countries. More specifically, it argues that the reproduction of the global trend towards stronger IPRs in South American soybean agriculture has been facilitated by transnational competition between soy growers and state agencies from Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay for foreign markets and technology. However, on the national level, the reproduction of that trend has been contingent upon three country-specific conditions: relations between the state and soy growers, competition in the provision of seed technology, and mobilization of soy growers. |
