ORGANIZATIONAL DOMAIN OVERLAP WITH COOPERATIVE OUTCOMES - THE DEPARTMENTS OF AGRICULTURE AND STATE AND INTERNATIONAL AGRICULTURAL POLICY DURING THE CARTER ADMINISTRATION

How does an increasingly global environment affect the way we establis h and implement policy? Rickert Althaus and Dean Yarwood examine domai n overlap between the Department of Agriculture and the Department of State regarding international agricultural policy during the Carter ad ministration. The authors focus on three decisions. PL 480 allocations to Egypt, Commodity Credit Corporation export credits to Poland, and the Soviet grain embargo. They discover that domain overlap is frequen tly a cause of interorganizational conflict. Interviews with federal o fficials provide evidence that, in the case of international agricultu ral policy during these years, relations between the departments seem to have been quite cooperative. The authors discuss some of the mechan isms, structures, and attitudes that contributed to that unanticipated result and suggest that participant interviews can contribute both to the confirmation and the enrichment of theory regarding interorganiza tional behavior.