ABSTRACT

Sustainable agriculture implies trade-offs with farm animal welfare. Proposals to increase agricultural productivity and ecological sustainability alike, are often linked to intensification, which may restrict animal welfare. Despite the growing importance of farm animal welfare for the alignment of agricultural and environmental policy, determinants of decision-making at the EU level remain unexplored. This article contributes to closing this research gap, broadening our understanding of why policymakers vote for the enactment of animal welfare policies. Applying the Social Identities in the Policy Process (SIPP) perspective we highlight the role of group membership for individual decision-making. By means of a quantitative analysis of voting behaviour in the European Parliament on two animal welfare policies, we show that different identities are salient. The strongest predictor is political group membership. In case of defections from the group line, the salience of national, sectoral and also demographic identities adds to the understanding of decision-making.

摘要

可持续农业意味着要与牲畜福利进行权衡。提高农业生产率和生态可持续性的建议通常与集约化有关，而集约化可能会限制动物的福利。尽管农场动物福利对于农业和环境政策的协调性越来越重要，但欧盟一级决策的决定因素仍待探索。本文有助于缩小这一研究差距，扩大了我们对政策制定者为何投票赞成制定动物福利政策的理解。在政策过程（SIPP）视角中应用社会身份，我们强调了团体成员身份在个人决策中的作用。通过对欧洲议会针对两种动物福利政策的投票行为进行定量分析，我们证明了不同的身份是显着的。最强的预测因素是政治团体成员资格。万一出现集团背叛，国家，部门和人口统计学的显着性将增加对决策的理解。